So you want to work at a startup

Working at a startup is nothing like any other job you may have had before (unless it was another startup, of course). It’s fast-paced, ever-changing, constantly challenging… and the most fun and rewarding job you will ever have. Having come to Virdee with about 15 employees at the time from a large corporation with over 100,000 employees, there was definitely an adjustment period for me. But being willing to listen and learn allowed me to quickly get settled and make an impact.

Here are my top three pieces of advice for working at a startup.

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Be flexible and inquisitive ?

It may sound cliché, but flexibility is the most important aspect one can have at a startup. This sounds easier said than done, especially if you spent 10+ years in corporate America beforehand. Even the most open-minded among us, priding themselves in always looking at every day with the wide eyes of a newly minted MBA, fall into routines or absorb certain ways of thinking at whatever company we may be working at.

Don’t get me wrong. Routines and standard practices are not a bad thing. They allow you to focus on the more important aspects of your job without worrying about the mundane day-to-day tasks that can be done on autopilot. Embrace those standards that you can put in place to help you focus on the bigger picture. Be aware that the fine line differentiating between what can be put on autopilot and what should regularly be looked at with fresh eyes moves constantly, regardless of what job you have.

When considering moving to Virdee, I met with people I respected, people who were successful in their own areas, for advice. More than once I was given the advice NOT to go to a nine-month-old startup. The reason was not the risk of the company’s failure but my own. Going from a huge company to a tiny one is such a culture shock that the risk of personal failure is high. What drove me to still take that risk was that I never lost that wide-eye inquisitiveness of a newly minted MBA, and I knew that I would best be able to apply that skill at a startup.

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Establish a culture and watch for blinders

You may have run into a situation at a job where you had a new idea to challenge the way things had always been done only to be shot down. The following month, an intern or a consultant arrives with the same suggestion you had, and they are praised for being creative and forward-thinking. Consultants and interns are paid to challenge the status quo. Their job is to challenge how things are being done at a company without the fear of being reprimanded. Employees may not want to voice those kinds of opinions because they will only make waves. That kind of culture can quickly spiral into a set of yes-men that only say what the boss wants to hear. Once that happens, it’s very hard to come back from the edge, and performance and culture quickly decline.

Startups have the benefit of defining their culture from the ground up. On Day One, there is no culture. The founder along with the first employees are the ones to define that culture and have the responsibility to not only communicate that to all new employees but also live it.

A cautionary word on putting on blinders. You may not even be aware that you’re wearing them, but they can quickly derail a startup’s success. It’s common to hear at a large company, “That’s just how it’s done here.” That is the most destructive sentence that can be uttered at a company. Think back to the fine line I mentioned above, defining which tasks can be put on autopilot and which cannot. Those blinders can really sneak up on you, and encouraging every employee (and reminding them regularly!) to challenge anything and everything at any time will drive employee satisfaction and company success.

Know what problem solving really means

Let’s tackle another cliché skill critical to being successful in one’s job: problem solving. You’ll be hard pressed to find a single resume that doesn’t highlight the candidate’s problem-solving abilities. To quote Vesper Lynd from Casino Royale, “There are dinner jackets and dinner jackets. This is the latter.” The same can be said for problem solving.

If you’re thinking about joining a startup, regardless of role or seniority, consider whether you really are a problem solver. Can you take nearly any topic, learn about it, tackle it, and be successful? Moreover, do you enjoy doing it? If you’re in a position to hire, ask questions that force the candidate to prove their ability to solve problems on the fly. Here is one of my favorites. You are wrapping up an event and need to send everything back to the office. You’re packing up the last box of miscellaneous materials including scissors, flyers, tape, etc. Everything needs to go into the box, including the tape. What do you do? This question may seem simple, but I’ll leave it to your imagination how many interviewees have been stumped by it.

My advice is to embrace every problem as a learning opportunity and even search out challenges that fall outside of your area of expertise. At Virdee, in the matter of one day, I can be everything from a secretary to an executive, and I love every second of it. Especially at a startup, you have the ability to mold how things are done. I helped launch Virdee’s 401k, organize our CRM move to Hubspot, find a corporate travel program, and establish practices on how to leverage Adobe Sign for contract automation, teaching myself Power Automate along the way. None of those topics have to do with marketing, and I didn’t know my way around any of them at first. That didn’t stop me from tackling them with enthusiasm, learning, solving, and having an impact.

No matter what role you have, you have the ability to shape how things are done at a startup. With the right mindset, you can have a huge impact and have fun doing it. Embrace the fact that not a single day will be the same and leverage that to grow your skillset.

Be open. Ask questions. Make a difference.?