Start Career in a Startup Company???
Hearty thanks to all, who spent their valuable time to read, like, comment and re-share my previous article. Such overwhelming responses inspire me to write more.
From childhood to youth, we have heard names of big companies from our surroundings with a tag MNC (Multi-National Company). Most of us weave a dream to work in these MNC’s for a prosperous, accomplished life. While pursuing our graduation, we aspire to get selected through campus interviews in large MNC conglomerates and avoid smaller companies. After we step out of college and start our job hunt with the same mind set, many end up beginning their careers by joining startup companies.
Most of us would have had a thought in our mind at some point in time - why should I start my career with a startup company or why work for a startup company? To address this, I am going to share my experiences on working in a start up company in this article. Below are a few salient points, I have tried to assimilate.
1) “Learning†- In a large corporate, most people work on repetitive tasks in an application for a longer period and their learning curve would be shallow. Whereas in startups the resources are less, thus one is forced to multi- task. You also get the opportunity to dabble with technologies in which you have no experience but are compelled to learn and deliver. You may feel frustrated and under pressure in the beginning, but in this process, you will have a steep learning curve, which teaches one to hone skills in that area. In short, working in such an environment will improve your technology and personal skills to multi tasking.
Learning never ends.. we can learn from superiors and subordinates in equal ratio, by keeping ego and attitude away.
2) “Work†- It is almost a cliché – “To work smart rather than work hardâ€. Startups are an exception. You only have the option to work hard; there are no short-cuts. One learns to single handedly juggle with many tasks. Short deadlines and quick qualitative output, drive us to the brink of breaking down. With this, a lot of rework may occur and you will end up working many weekends. Apparently it sounds only cons, but beneath lies the pros, which quietly whet your hidden talent. Assignments which seemed impossible in the beginning appear achievable in the end.
You will be recognized and praised only via work not by cracking jokes or creating politics and the other.
3) “Exposure†- In startup companies, an employee will get the chance to own a module of the project which enables them to travel offshore (Client interaction). This seems to be difficult in big scale companies as a single module will be shared between multiple resources. Whereas the cons with startups is that mostly management role employees preferably get to travel more often, developer who are less-worthy will travel, to show & motivate others.
Exposure helps in enhancing your knowledge
4) “Environment†- Startup environments are not so friendly with respect to having fun and joy. You may miss team outings, special occasions, celebration of festivals and other engagements which you would enjoy in larger corporates. You may not get work from home options or leave easily. Policies and procedures will differ from employee to employee. There can be lot of ups and downs in startups but always your technical skills will be sharpened and in that way, one can learn to be adaptive of any environment which helps them to work on a good/worse environment anytime.
Don't be in your comfort zone. Always fight to make any environment as comfort zone.
5) “Boss†- Bosses are always bosses, they would behave in the same way and as I have described in my previous article, most of the employees quit their job due to their bosses. Startup bosses are easier to deal with than corporate bosses, as you have closer interaction with your boss every day. In case of any issues with the boss then the CEO can lend their helping hand to pull you out of the issue.
One day you can also be the Boss. Try not to do what you hated. Be an innovative and compassionate leader and not a operational CEO or Manager
6) “Business Learning†- In MNCs, you will not get the opportunity to learn about business models, plans, management tactics so easily. In startups, you can easily learn how to manage people, ways to conduct appraisals, how to lead or handle an employee, how a project works, how to handle client escalations, how to communicate with clients, how to get repeated business from a client and much more..
If you aspire to be an entrepreneur, always keep your eyes on it.
7) “Emotions†- Feelings/emotions are the ones that you need to put aside when you step into your workplace. If you have shared them with anybody, they will use this against you when needed, they will play with it, create false scenes, spread the word in a wrong way. Emotions and feelings should be the driving force and not to drag you down. Adapting to changes is one of the primary skills for a start up to survive.
One of my Bosses advised me to share only emotions with our mother. Only she can understand, No one else. Lastly, never mix personal and professional life.
I want to conclude by saying there are a lot of difficulties, ups and downs in Startups. But it all enhances your capability, power of tolerance, stamina to endure, logic and rationale, makes you more tough, adaptive and successful in any situation and environment.
Consider yourself a startup, only then you will grow from the bottom to the top.