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Similar to Planted Presents: Breaking Into Startups: Hoodies, Macbooks & What to Expect for the Non-Coder
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Planted Presents: Breaking Into Startups: Hoodies, Macbooks & What to Expect for the Non-Coder
- 1. Breaking Into Startups Hoodies, MacBooks, & What to Expect for the Non-Coder Connie Wong Co-Founder, Planted @cs_wong
- 2. Today’s Topics • Roles & Paths at Startups • What to Expect • Who Startups Look For • Breaking In • Startup Interviewing Tips
- 3. Brief Background Connie Wong Co-Founder, Planted (Techstars NY’14) Product Manager, MeetMoi (acq by Match.com) Strategy Consultant, Accenture Penn/Wharton ‘08
- 5. Roles at Startups Business Development Customer Service Marketing Operations Analytics HR Office/Admin Sales The Wolf Social Media/Community Developer
- 6. Common Entry Points • Business Growers • Happiness Specialists • Operations Coordinators • User Magnets
- 7. Business Growers Impact: Drive New Business • Learn: Business bootcamp – gain professional confidence, learn to sell, build relationships • Paths: Sales Associate, Account Manager, CEO
- 8. Business Growers You • Want to be a founder one day • Love to persuade • Can break out of your comfort zone • Friends call you the shark Roles • Sales Associate • Market Development Representative • Business Development Associate
- 9. Happiness Specialists Impact: Keep Customers Happy • Learn: Manage expectations, communicate complexity in simple terms, problem solve, experience the product • Paths: Account Manager, Social Media/Community Manager, Operations Associate, Product Manager
- 10. Happiness Specialists You • Naturally enjoy helping others • Love speaking with people • Embrace tough situations • Problem solver Roles • Customer Experience Associate • Customer Success Manager • Customer Service Representative • Account Manager
- 11. Operations Coordinators Impact: Keep the Company Running • Learn: Wear a ton of hats, interact cross-departmentally, how to scale and optimize • Paths: Project Manager, Product Manager, COO
- 12. Operations Coordinators You • Go-to party planner among your friends • Love wearing multiple hats • Efficiency fixer-upper • Ready to adapt to any project Roles • Operations Associate • Office Manager • Admin Assistant
- 13. User Magnets Impact: Acquire Users • Learn: Science behind user acquisition, levers of growth, marketing analytics • Paths: Marketing Manager, Product Marketing Manager, CMO, Business Intelligence
- 14. User Magnets You • Love numbers and data • Creative yet highly analytical • Use Twitter more than email Roles • Marketing Analyst • Growth Hacker • Social Media / Community Manager
- 15. Roles That Don’t Exist “STRATEGY”
- 16. Planted Stories Gabrielle Ambrosio Team Coordinator Colgate ‘14 Jenn Kao Customer Success Manager Northwestern ‘13 Trevor Davenport Market Development Rep Cornell ‘14
- 17. What to Expect
- 18. Be Ready to Wear Lots of Hats
- 19. Change Is the Only Constant
- 20. 100% Mindshare
- 23. Who Startups Look For
- 24. Applicant Requirements Self-Starters Comfortable with the Unknown Resourcefulness Whatever it Takes Mindset
- 25. Breaking In
- 26. Develop Your Target List
- 27. Do LOTS of Coffee Meetings
- 28. Broaden Your Network With Events
- 29. Get a Taste of Building Something
- 30. Show Interest in Learning
- 31. Get Your “In” Through Planted www.planted.com
- 33. Top 5 Startup Interviewing Tips 1. Do Your Homework 2. Bring Something to the Table 3. Show Passion 4. Don’t Ask to Do “Strategy” 5. Don’t Wear a Suit
- 34. Thanks! Sign Up! www.planted.com More Resources: planted.com/blog Follow on Twitter, IG: @planted Find us on Facebook: @plantedjobs Connie Wong @cs_wong
Editor's Notes
- 2 min: Today’s Topics + Brief Background Audience Check: Currently working at startups Transitioning careers into startups Just graduated and looking at startups as a first job Current students Technical positions vs. Non-Technical 5 min: Roles at Startups for Non-Engineers Devs aren’t the only positions – lots of non-tech Example stories of candidates we’ve matched (student / career transitioner) 5 min: What to Expect at a Startup Expect to Wear Multiple Hats Change Is the Only Constant 100% Mindshare Don’t Do It For the Money Career Trajectory Is Your Own Who Startups Look For Hustlers 5 min: How to Find a Startup Job Check out our blogpost 5 min: Startup Interviewing Tips 20 min Q&A Trevor
- Penn/Wharton Consulting MeetMoi Lynxsy
- Let’s start with what roles exist at a startup Everyone knows about the elusive developer – the purple unicorns that everyone is looking for It’s a common misconception that we run into that you have to know how to code to work at a startup – that isn’t the case. In fact, according to a recent study on the NY Tech Ecosystem, 60% of jobs in tech here in NY are non-technical. These range from sales and customer service to marketing / business dev / social media or community mgmt …
- To highlight some of these roles, we’d like to share a few Planted stories of actual candidates we’ve helped place into positions at startups. Gabrielle – Colgate 2014 grad, English degree – matched with OneFineStay, a startup originally from London that is creating a full-service AirBnB where they turn your apartment into a hotel for rent. Gabby’s responsibilities as Team Coordinator falls within Operations where she helps make sure that the logistics teams are working smoothly to create an amazing guest experience for the guests. Jenn, Northwestern 2013 psychology, was matched with Kinnek, a b2b startup out of AngelPad accelerator that helps match SMBs with suppliers. She started there as a Customer Success Manager building direct relationships with buyers on the platform when Kinnek, and in just 6 months is already being promoted to managing the entire 8 person Customer Success Team. Trevor graduated from Cornell in 2014 (business degree) and recently started at TriggerMail, a Techstars company that provides triggered email solutions to ecommerce companies. As the first Market Development Rep, he’s responsible for driving new business by prospecting new leads and reaching out to set up sales calls.
- Now that we’ve covered some of the roles at startups, it’s important to know what you should expect working at a startup to determine if it’s right for now. Wearing multiple hats - When your team is small, you’ll likely be taking on responsibilities not directly in your line of duty One moment you might be tasked with competitor research, the next you could be negotiating vendor agreements, and the next you are ordering the weekly supply of snacks, all of which I did at MeetMoi on top of working with the engineering team on the product. Don’t expect that what you signed up for is all that you’ll be expected to take on – and that’s the fun of it
- Change is the only constant at a startup, so be prepared to be flexible The company could decide to pivot in a new direction or a new fundraise round could turn your 5 person startup into 50 in weeks. At Tough Mudder, where our co-founder & CEO, Susan worked previously, the company exploded from 10 to 200 in 2 years – which put the team through a whirlwind of change in team dynamics, processes, and growth. You’ll constantly have to change gears, so be prepared to be flexible and adapt
- When talking about hours – it’s less about the actual hours spent in the office, but the mindshare a startup takes. At MeetMoi, I was working 9:30-7, but often found myself working on projects late at night and weekends, or unable to fall asleep because my mind wouldn’t shut off about work. Not because anyone told me to, but because I knew that my contribution would move the ball forward in a meaningful way. Don’t expect a clear line between work and life at a startup – it very much becomes everything you do.
- If you’re looking at startups hoping to find the next Facebook, you’re probably in it for the wrong reasons. While it could very well be that the startup you join is a rocket ship, there’s a 99% chance it’ll fail, so you have to be ok with that outcome. Ask yourself – in the worse case scenario and the company doesn’t succeed, will you be happy having been part of something trying to create something new and where your contributions made an impact. Financial payoff is of course great, but consider it as gravy on top should you be so lucky. In terms of compensation, average entry-level salaries we’ve seen in the market range from $35K-$45K with a tiny percentage of equity (0.1-0.25%). So if you are transitioning from another career in finance, consulting, or another corporate job, while comp may be slightly higher if you come from some experience, make sure you are ok with a likely sizeable paycut before you start your search.
- That said, startups can give you unlimited career potential. At a startup, things can change dramatically, fast, that can have the potential accelerate your career path and responsibilities – it’s all about your willingness to take on added responsibilities and flexibility to grow with the team, wherever needed. Back to our example with Kinnek, their Series A fundraise of $10M is dramatically shifting the responsibilities of the current employees and providing Jenn an opportunity to manage the entire customer service team within 6 months of joining.
- Given these expectations at a startup, it’s important to understand the qualities that startups look for so you can brand and position yourself accordingly. Self-Starters – people who don’t require a lot of guidance to get going and move the ball forward Comfortable with the Unknown – startups are forging a new path which can create a lot of ambiguity – you might get a project to “open up a new market” or “figure out our sales process”, which you, nor your manager, has any experience with Resourcefulness – That’s where resourcefulness comes into play with being able to leverage your connections to get sales expertise, research for online tutorials, and get to what you need. Whatever it Takes Mindset – Comes down to having a whatever it takes mindset. Before you get the job this may mean proactively offering to do some free projects for the company to get them comfortable with the value you can provide. Or while on the job, staying those extra hours or picking up additional responsibilities to get the job done. >>Hustlers – Essentially, hustlers Independent: Startups look for problem solvers. People who approach challenges with “how can we make this happen” versus “there’s no way we can do this.” Tolerance: Startups by nature are ambiguous organizations that are heavily resource constrained. There aren’t enough resources for any handholding so each and every person needs to be able to take a project and run with it. That means you might be given a project that you have never done before and maybe the company has never done before, but you have to add structure and figure it out. These could be “figure out our international expansion” – actually one of Susan’s first projects. Or, figure out how we can improve community moderation. Going along these lines, being resourceful is a key trait of any successful startup team member. That may mean Googling something new to you, pulling your friends for connections or feedback, or coming up with creative solutions. Resilience and passion. There are always ups and downs to startups – they look for people who can push through setbacks and bounce back stronger because of their passion for the team, mission, and product. In sales, for instance, you might get 100 closed doors before you land your first client. It’s the ability to be persistent that makes you stand out. Confidence but no ego. This means being a true team player. In a startup, there are a lot of things that need to get done that aren’t glamorous or in your direct line of responsibilities. For example, as a Product Manager, it wasn’t in my job description, but I helped manage the Fresh Direct order on top of my other product responsibilities to keep up the team culture. Basically it comes down to being a hustler – being able to do whatever it takes to make things happen.
- Now that we’ve covered some of the expectations of a startup and what they’re looking for, how do you actually break in? The first thing is to develop your target list of not only startups, but also anyone you know in the tech community who could potentially be a resource in your search. There are some great resources out there to help you develop this list. Made in NY is a great list to browse – it has 1000 startups that were founded in NY listed and highlights which are actively hiring AngelList is a great resource if you’re looking for early stage startups – will provide you links to the founders, and in-depth info on the product and investors of the company Twitter is helpful in discovering and following startups as they all have social media presences. It’ll also give you a good idea of which are active and have momentum. Also look to your own university alumni databases to find friendlies willing to help.
- Once you have your list of startups and influencers, use LinkedIn to find connections to them and ask for 15-30 min of time to grab a coffee or chat on the phone to ask for some advice. Have a LOT of these conversations so you can not only get yourself as top of mind if they are hiring later, but also so you can gather a lot of data points to help guide your own search. Ask them about the startup culture, work load, and responsibilities of their job, what they did when they joined and what they’re doing now, and given your background where they would see you most fitting in. Start narrowing down your criteria from here on the exact stage and role you’re looking for so you can better focus your efforts. Also make sure to ask them for someone else they could intro you to. Referrals in general are the #1 way people find jobs at startups – There often is no formal recruiting process, especially at early stage companies. And even at big startups, they have so many inbound resumes that they don’t even look at them. One of our clients has 1000 resumes in their inbox, and as a result goes strictly through referral.
- Events are a great way to jumpstart or expand on your network. And the tech community in NY is especially strong. Gary’s Guide is a great resource for curated startup events to help you filter for ones worth attending. Set a goal for yourself that you’ll attend at least 1 event a week and set up a coffee chat with at least 1 person from that event. Just going to the event won’t help you alone. StrtupBoost hosts all types of startup-focused events, from job fairs to panels to online discussions. Digital.NYC is an online hub for the startup community, connecting companies, investors, incubators, and other organizations in the five boroughs.
- Get a taste of actually building something. Workshops like Startup Weekend and LeanStartupMachine are a great way to get a taste of going from an idea to a prototype and validated customer learning all in the course of a weekend, and you don’t have to be a developer to participate. This was something I sought out while in consulting as a way to get absorbed into the startup ecosystem while still balancing my current job. It also was a great way to work with a cross-functional team of devs, designers, marketers, and business people, which I had not previously been exposed to in consulting, and what I found to be essential in the 15 person team at MeetMoi. It was also a great tangible piece of evidence of my interest in startups when in an interview setting.
- Set yourself apart by actually having real skills, or at the very least demonstrate your interest in learning. Startups are looking for people who can add tangible value and deliver on real output from Day 1, or with limited direction. Interested in marketing? Take some classes from Skillshare or GA on digital marketing – set up your own google adwords campaign so you can learn the ropes and at least be familiar with the concepts. Take an intro web development course so you can build up some basic knowledge in html/css and have a basic understanding of what the developers are talking about. This will help you set yourself apart and prove to the startup that you at the very least have taken the initiative to learn some of the relevant skills on your own.
- And of course use Planted has a resource to help you get your foot in the door. We focus on matching junior talent with startups for non-technical roles (sales, marketing, customer service). All you have to do is sign up with a brief profile and we’ll send you curated jobs that match your preferences and background. There’s no charge for candidates. We have direct relationships with over 100 startups and we’ll act as your “in” to the company to fast-track your resume. We also provide a Trial Period for many of our roles to help you test out the company before making a long-term commitment.
- Finally, once you are able to get an interview opportunity, here are our Top 5 tips on making an impression: Do Your Homework This means, Sign Up for their site and experience it – can’t tell you how many candidates fail to do this baseline requirement which most startups expect for someone interested in working at their company. Look up PR so you can show your awareness of recent news like a new round Check out the Competition to help give you some thoughtful questions to ask Bring Something to the Table Again, it goes back to proving you can add value on Day 1. If they don’t give you an assignment themselves, Wow them with your own assignment. Have a new feature idea or a new type of email template they could send to users? Mock it up and bring it in to show. Your goal should be to WOW the interviewer above what was expected in the amount of value you could add and the initiative you have. Your own portfolio Show Passion You need to prove your passion for the company and role in the interview. There are many times that candidates fall short in the interview because they don’t exude enough enthusiasm. But it’s not just blind cheerleading for the company. It’s about showing your enthusiasm around the mission of what they’re doing, but also asking thoughtful questions around the challenges you expect them to face and which you could help solve. Outside of showing passion for the company, demonstrate your passion in something else as well. Play music on the side? Talk about that in the interview and show that for something you are passionate about you’ve pursued it to the Nth degree. Don’t ask to do “Strategy” When candidates are asked what they see themselves doing at a startup and express interest in doing “strategy”, the alarm bells go off in an interviewers mind. Sure, roles like these might exist at a Google or FB, but for much smaller companies under 50-100, that role doesn’t exist – it tends to fall amongst the founders or CEO. It’s about building teams to execute and bringing in people who are going to add real results, not just recommendations. And when candidates ask it scares the interviewer that this person isn’t willing to get their hands dirty in the real work. Don’t wear a suit A huge part of the interview beyond requirements fit is culture fit with the team. Know that most startups are known for casual wear and t-shirts so if you show up in a suit, it’s going to be super awkward for both sides. A big part of the interview should be relating with the interviewer and making sure you get along, and also show your awareness of the environment you’re getting yourself into. We tend to recommend dressy casual to keep things safe. WOW your interviewer Do your homework (that means sign up) Come with recommendations Ask thoughtful questions Demonstrate legit interest in startups Create a “portfolio” Own a sphere of influence – prove you can execute Show your passion for the company and role Know your story – why are you here?