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There have been a few OnStartups threads about how an employer could look at your start-up experience. Since this board favors people who are either currently involved in a start-up or are considering it, a lot of responses tend to be positive; for example, that being in a start-up shows entrepreneurship, drive, willingness to take risks, etc. And while that's all true, I think it's important for people to understand the challenges on the way back to corporate life if start-ups fail. More importantly, I thought it'd be helpful to think through with this membership

As awful as it sounds, I would like to hear specifically about perceived NEGATIVES of being involved in start-up. And before anyone says it, comments like "well if they don't value it you shouldn't work there" miss the mark. Personally, I agree but that's not a productive answer. Some people need the benefits of corporations, or for a host of other reasons may find start-ups unsuitable. Corporate HR and Hiring Manager mentalities are critical to understand.

Here are my examples of how start-ups can HURT your employability. (Again, imagine the scrutiny of an HR person and/or a manager with no entrepreneurial background).

  • Being perceived as someone who needs to lead and create, and wouldn't or couldn't be part of a larger, structured work environment
  • Being perceived as having poor judgment for leaving more 'reliable' employ or career trajectory
  • Being perceived as someone won't take direction.
  • ...

Any others you've encountered? I may take flak for this post, but knowing that entrepreneurship isn't for everyone once they try it, charting a path back to a 'regular job' isn't off-topic.

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As you pointed out, I think its a fair question. In general, how does a founder transition back into the typical workforce. – MikeNereson Nov 18 '11 at 20:19
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I get the feeling that most employers are looking for sheep: do what your told and don't ask no questions. In that case, they probably would not value your attempts to create a start-up. But if you were an employee then they probably wouldn't think badly of your experience. – B Seven Nov 19 '11 at 2:42

3 Answers

up vote 2 down vote

One point of friction in the hiring process is going to be in establishing context about your work history.

For example, let's say you are a software engineer who has worked at amazon.com for the last five years. You don't have to spend a lot of time explaining what your employer does. It's likely that HR and interviewers already have some idea about amazon, so you just have to talk about your role within the company. HR and interviewers will see that you worked at a successful company for five years, so that establishes some amount of credibility for you right off the bat.

On the other hand, if you worked at startups for the last five years that didn't end up with successful exits (i.e. no IPO or aquisition), you'll probably have to spend more effort in establishing that context, since it's very possible that nobody at the hiring company will have heard about your startup(s).

This certainly doesn't kill your chances, but it is worth thinking through how you want to explain your work/startup history in that light. Have a crisp and concise history of what happened, successes, why things didn't work in the end (if they didn't), and lessons learned. People are probably going to have those questions, so be prepared.

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up vote 2 down vote

My advice - and this is probably true of all job searches:

Be prepared to recast your "startup" experience with different words, or from a different perspective that today's startups proceed from. Stress a real world opportunity that you observed that your business was formed in order to exploit. Avoid making your startup sound like a glob of mud hurled at the wall to see if it sticks.

I would personally want to be distanced from the word "startup." This trend will not last forever.

At risk of sounding like a snot, I am going to say that it is possible that startup experience today may come off in the near future like being "in on" a fad. So the suspicion of poor judgement may be most likely. It could be guilt by association. This will be especially true if there is a collapse of the startup scene due to VCs and seed investors losing interest.

It also heavily depends upon the hiring company's culture.

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up vote 3 down vote

It doesn't hurt your employability if you intend to work for a more creative dept. of a large corporation - this typically includes product design, bizdev, business intelligence, data analysis, data warehousing - all of which involve a significant level of creativity that can be obtained from a startup context.

All the above factors you listed are soft factors employers look at to determine fit - but these generally only account for 5-10% of the decision. A holistic eval of the potential employee will take into account the type of role the person played in the startup. Be more specific about the type of roles you're comparing b/w startups and large companies, and you'll get better answers.

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That's a great answer. And more specifically, I meant more of a founder role or other key position in a startup. – Nicko Nov 18 '11 at 20:16

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