12. "Looking for A Start-Up Career?"

Are you thinking of entering the start-up world? Are you ready for a fast-paced workplace whose mission is to change the world? Do you just want to see what industry is like? This week I focus on what you should ask yourself and your potential employer before entering the start-up world.

My Experience, The Beginning of My Start-Up Career

I jumped into the start-up world starry eyed and probably didn't ask all the questions I should have. I left academia to become financially secure after a long-term relationship breakdown. Money can't buy you happiness, but financial security can definitely reduce stress and anxiety!

My introduction to the start-up world happened completely by accident. I attended a talk given by a former colleague and when I arrived my colleague was talking with someone I didn't know, but who turned out to be the CEO of a start-up. The start-up provided insights to drug companies using pharmaceutical data, and they used the same data I analysed during my PhD.

He invited me to visit the start-up which was housed in a stunning, industrial design building, combining steel with wood and old fashioned trains and engines. We went to a nearby cafe where he showed me a dashboard, demonstrating their data visualisation and analytical capabilities.

(For you to understand my reaction to these data you need to know: I love data. I get excited thinking about it and its capabilities to improve people's lives. I believe that if we can just collect the right data and ask the right questions we can change the world.)

As I was very familiar with these data, I knew the time it took to create one graph. But he flicked through dozens of graphs in seconds, and could filter the results by time period, drug, sex, etc. I was amazed. I was awestruck. And while I was still trying to figure out how they were able to achieve such a feat, and staring lovingly at the graphs, he offered me a job.

I was surprised, and curious. At no other point in my career would I have considered a job in industry. I was too enamoured with academia. But due to life circumstances, I was open to career exploration.

There was little discussion of pay or what my role would include at any of the three subsequent meetings I had with different members of the team: the co-founder, Head of Sales, and two employees. None of these meetings felt like a job interview, instead they all felt like informal chats. We spoke about the business, their experiences at the start-up, their background, and the potential roles I could do at the company.

I obviously did well at these informal chats as they sent me through a letter of offer. I didn't know what pay to expect as it had never been discussed, and there was no formal job advertisement to know a specific range. But when I read the offer, I knew I was worth more so we negotiated and agreed on a salary.

My industry salary was a $30K pay increase from my academic salary. $30,000! I was excited, and could picture my future of financial security. I could finally exhale.

My plan was to do the start-up job for 1 year, and save. But apply for early career fellowships (post-doc funding) so I could return to academia at the end of the year, or stay in the start-up if I didn't secure funding.

I didn't end up returning to academia, but that is another story.

I stayed at that start-up for 1.5 years. I liked the culture there, working hard, perks of free food and lunches, my colleagues were lovely, and we were working towards one shared vision. There was no competition within teams, but healthy competition between teams to keep on pushing and achieving.

At 1.5 years, I achieved my goal of financial security, and realised I wasn't happy with my role. I wanted to use my research skills, and ask new questions. Not just add new drugs into pre-programmed algorithms and present formulated dashboards. I wanted to make the algorithms and dashboards. But I learnt, this was the domain of the development team and my lack of programming skills meant I could not contribute to this area of the business.

Although I still loved research, I had no desire to return to academia. I had changed.

The quick-paced environment of finding an insight, and acting on it straight-away was now in my veins. The idea of one analysis shaping the core business for my team was intoxicating. I no longer saw the point in spending months writing up my findings for a journal when I could act on them now.

I looked for another job for 1 day. I found two jobs, applied, interviewed and was offered them both! One was at a health-focused not-for-profit start-up and the other was a 1-year government position helping researchers access health data. I accepted the start-up position.

I believe every start-up workplace is different. Management really do set the culture for the company. But, there are some questions you should ask yourself and the start-up you are considering working for before you make the leap.

The Lessons of Working in the Start-Up World:

What you should do before working at a start-up:

• Check out their social media presence.

Including LinkedIn; Instagram; their company website and read their company blog. These will give you a sense of the company's values and may be a good proxy for their culture. Do their values align with your values? What values do you have that might conflict with the company's values?

• Google the company.

See what the media has written about the company. Are there any skeletons in the closet? You should know as much as you can about the company before you start working there.

The 7 questions you should ask your potential employer:

• What is the company's vision?

Most start-ups can tell you their vision in a sentence or two. In fact, the vision may be framed on a wall in the office. It is important the start-up can articulate their vision, as that is their guide to make decisions about the company's future direction and growth.

If a company doesn't have a vision, this guided path will be full of obstacles and wrong turns. On a day to day level, this will mean you will have no clear direction, conflicting work tasks, work will be started, not finished, and the company will pivot, meaning the business focus/vision will change. As a consequence of pivoting, some jobs may become redundant.

If you are comfortable with this level of adaptability, then you will thrive at a company like this. If structure and continuity are important to you, this may be a struggle for you.

• How does the team you will be working for contribute to the vision? Can you grow in this company?

If the team you start working with does not appear to contribute to the overall vision, then your time at the start-up may be limited. If you decide to take the job anyway, then pay attention to the teams that do contribute to the overall vision and try to align your skillset with a job in one of those teams to increase your job security.

My experience: I was working at a start-up where I was the only one in research, with the promise that other researchers would join. No other researchers were hired, and I was eventually made redundant as research was no longer a priority!

• What is the job?

This may sound like a very basic question, and it is. This question is especially important if you do not respond to a job advertisement! Ask what your role will be and your key responsibilities. Also, if they can give you a job description that you can use as a guide. Without a job description it is difficult to know what is part of your role, and what is not. What tasks you need to prioritise and learn, and which ones are distractions which you should assign to others.

My experience: part of the reason I left start-up #1 is because I thought my job was going to be to review their report algorithms to make them more robust, if required. The job I ended up doing was consultant work, creating/interpreting graphs and explaining them to clients, which was not the role I wanted. At the beginning, I also ended up attending a lot of meetings where I didn't know if I was required, or if it was appropriate for me to even be there.

If you find yourself in a similar situation, speak up towards the beginning of your role. Tell your manager you are confused and let them guide you. I tried to 'fake it, til I make it' but then it felt like I had been there for too long to ask these basic questions.

• What do you want to get out of this job?

(This is a question to ask yourself, not your potential employer)

Not every job is for life. In research, we commonly have 1-year contracts as the funding situation is so precarious. In the start-up world, programmers routinely move on after 2-years because it is thought after this time you are no longer learning anything new and your skills are getting rusty. So after 2-years you need to show progression, by either moving up the management ladder or learning new skills/packages/languages.

I like this idea, only stay in a job if you are still learning and/or you are progressing in your career.

So ask yourself, what do I want out of this job? Do you want to develop a specific skill set? Attain some experience to move to a larger tech company? Learn the Scrum methodology? Become a Product Owner? Make a piece of software that will change the world? (If some of these words are unknown, read my blog in a few weeks time focusing on 'start-up vocab').

Write down your job/career objectives. Look for opportunities to advance towards these objectives.

After you have been there for 6-months, look at the list again. What have you learnt in your job? Which parts of your job do you love? Are your objectives still relevant to you? Have you sought opportunities to achieve these objectives? Do you like your job? Do you like your manager? Do you like your colleagues? Can your career grow at the company? Is there another job you would like to do? Use the answers to these questions to figure out, do you want to stay or move onto another company?

• What is the renumeration?

If you are leaving academia, there should be a sizeable salary increase heading into the start-up world. (If the jobs are of similar experience level.) To give you an idea of what to expect, search job listings for the new position title in other tech companies to see the salary range. Figure out the salary you want and negotiate.

Start-ups are different in negotiating salary than universities.

In academia, there is a specific range you can be paid for a specific job, and everyone that is doing the job at that level is paid about the same. In start-ups, there is no criteria, and no expectancy that everyone will be paid the same. Your salary reflects how well you negotiate.

My experience: On my first day at start-up #1 I was getting paid more than some of my colleagues in my team who had been there for 1 year or longer. I didn't know at the time, and it may not have been fair, but it was true.

For another start-up job, I applied and was offered the job. I wasn't sure if I should take it or not. Due to my hesitation, they offered me a salary that was $15,000 above the top of the advertised salary range. If you have a skill set the start-up wants, they will pay you for it.

• (Add extra $$$ if you have a PhD.)

My experience: Start-ups love telling clients and colleagues that you have a PhD. The 'Dr' title gives you authority. In academia, being a Dr means you are a small fish in a big pond. In start-ups you are a big fish in a small pond, AND a rare species. Your PhD makes the company seem more reputable, it adds value to their reputation, and you will be paid based on the value you add to the business.

• What are the expectations for working hours?

Start-ups will likely advertise the salary based on a fixed 35-hour work week. In reality, employees may be expected to put in more hours to progress in the company.

My experience: I did not do this. My attitude was, you pay me for 35 hours, you get me for 35 hours. So I largely worked 9 am to 5pm, and was flexible around big deadlines. Some of my colleagues put in many more hours, knew the product better, and were rightly given opportunities to upskill and advance in the company.

At the time, I did not have the energy to do this. It was not my priority to know the product really well. This was an experiment, I knew I would only be there for 1 year. I also didn't see myself growing in the company, as there was no level to go to above consultant.

If you enter the start-up world, decide how much you are willing to give to the start-up. They will gladly take what you are willing to give, and in return they may nurture your career progression, or they may not. This is why it is good to have job objectives to figure out if you are still growing as an employee.

• What are the non-monetary perks? Do they offer training in programs?

As pointed out above, start-ups are generally more generous than universities. For starters, they provide company-paid snacks, monthly lunches, and some dinners if you work late. They also provide a company laptop, which you return when you leave, but can use as your personal computer while you work there. (Just ensure you are aware of the company policy of surveilling your activity on the company laptop).

Ask them what their policy is on training. Try to work your job objectives into your role at the start-up so you are getting paid to up-skill. If you need training to achieve these objectives, think about how you up-skilling will benefit the business. Will it save them time? Will it save them money?

If you have a plan for your start-up career, and beyond, you will likely thrive in this environment!

Do you have standard questions you ask potential employers? What questions have I missed in my list for start-ups? Please let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment below or emailing me at AuthenticResearchExperiences@gmail.com

BB

Photo by Nikita Katsevich on Unsplash

Related Posts:

'Starry-Eyed for Start-Ups'

'Start-Up Book Reviews'

I will write a new post every Friday about another aspect of the research world. Please email me to subscribe to my blog. AuthenticResearchExperiences@gmail.com

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