Why Choose a Startup?(and tips for how to get in if you do)

Rand Fishkin | @randfish | moz.com/rand

http://bit.ly/whychooseastartup

4 Dangerous Myths About

Startup Jobs

#1: Startups Do Not Compress Your Wealth Horizon

http://www.paulgraham.com/wealth.html

“For example, one way to make a million dollars would be to work for the Post Office your whole life, and save every penny of your salary. Imagine the stress of working for the Post Office for fifty years. In a startup you compress all this stress into three or four years.”

“If a fairly good hacker is worth $80,000 a year at a big company, then a smart hacker working very hard without any corporate bullshit to slow him down should be able to do work worth about $3 million a year.”

#1: Startups Do Not Compress Your Wealth Horizon

http://www.paulgraham.com/wealth.html

“For example, one way to make a million dollars would be to work for the Post Office your whole life, and save every penny of your salary. Imagine the stress of working for the Post Office for fifty years. In a startup you compress all this stress into three or four years.”

“If a fairly good hacker is worth $80,000 a year at a big company, then a smart hacker working very hard without any corporate bullshit to slow him down should be able to do work worth about $3 million a year.”

YOU’RE GONNA HAVE A BAD TIME

#2: Startups Are Always 80+ Hour Weeks

http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2007-05-19/

#3: At Least You’ll Always Love What You Do

http://poorlydrawnlines.com/comic/startup-ideas/

#4: The Culture/Environment is Always Better

http://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/8191317327/

3 Powerful Truths About

Startup Jobs

#1: Less Red Tape, Fewer Politics, More GSD

#2: Your Career Can Leapfrog Intermediate Roles

#3: The Impact of Your Efforts Will Be Far More Visible

http://themetapicture.com/if-my-thoughts-were-visible/

Startups vs.

Established Companies

Structured vs. Unstructured

At a startup, your tasks and responsibilities will change regularly, and progress will feel more like a scatterplot

At an established company, your work/role is likely to fit a relatively

stable pattern

Big Team vs. Small Team

http://37signals.com/svn/posts/995-if-youre-working-in-a-big-group-youre-fighting-human-nature

Repeatable Model vs. Discoverable Model

Startups find themselves with lots of false “eureka” moments, followed by periods of

fast change to find a repeatable model.

Established companies usually have a repeatable model for income/growth

Risk vs. Reward

Startups are perceived to have tremendous risk, but startup

founders and high-skill-demand employees (e.g. engineers,

designers, marketers, product folks) usually don’t have a difficult time

finding new roles.

Established companies are often perceived to have less risk. This is true in some areas, e.g. benefits,

higher comp, cash balance, etc, but has some big holes, too, e.g.

obsolescence of skills, layoff risk, negative associations, etc.

5 Tips for

Earning a Startup Job

#1: Research the Company, Product, & Market

From the SEOmoz Facebook page and Rand’s personal blog

CAVEAT: Be Careful About External Sources

Whole Bunches of Wrong Info

#2: Show That You Are Metrics Driven

http://gmailmeter.com

http://followerwonk.com

How Obsessed With Metrics? VERY!!

#3: Be A Culture Fit BEFORE You Ever Interview

http://linkedin.com

Even if you don’t know people there, you know people who know them!

#4: Creative Resumes & Messages WORK

http://www.behance.net/gallery/Facebook-New-Look-Concept/6504647

#5:Turned Down? Do The Work Anyway*.

* Only do this if you’re

confident that the

culture/personality fit was

excellent. Otherwise, it

gets creepy and weird.

No one likes creepy and

weird.

Why Choose a Startup?(and tips for how to get in if you do)

Rand Fishkin | @randfish | moz.com/rand

http://bit.ly/whychooseastartup