The following was written by Mark Suster (original post found here) regarding new hires and start-ups:
Join our company if you think you’ll learn from being here. I think you will.
Join if you think your career will progress because you’ll be given more responsibilities than elsewhere and if you’re good at what you do you can move up quickly. We’re a meritocracy.
Join because you know you’ll be earning less than you could elsewhere at some meaningless job cranking out non-core code, producing Powerpoint slides or shuffling paper. You can always earn more. But join here if you want to grow.
Join because you like the culture. You think you’ll have fun. You’ll consider your colleagues close friends.
Join because in three year’s time when you look at this job and this company on your CV you’ll feel proud and it will be part of how you got where you were going.
Join because as we grow our ability to reward you will grow and your income will grow with our success that you contributed to.
We give out stock options. I hope they’re worth money to you some day. But let them be “icing on the cake.” If they pay off handsomely that’s great. But don’t count on it. Don’t let it be your motivator or your driving decision.
I am currently working at my third start-up, thredUP, and after reading what Mark Suster wrote and how dead-on it is, I couldn't resist elaborating on his post. Each start-up I've worked for has been dramatically different from the others. My first start-up was funded by the founder's friends, the second was self-funded and thredUP is VC backed. I wish I would have read Suster's post when I graduated from college because only my current company would have passed this gauntlet.
Join our company if you think you’ll learn from being here. I think you will.
There's a subtle assumption hiding in here: you must be willing to learn, especially if you're not coming in at an executive level. You must be comfortable trading off immediate financial gains for potential, long-term financial gains by way of experience obtained (or stock options actually returning something in the rare case).
Join if you think your career will progress because you’ll be given more responsibilities than elsewhere and if you’re good at what you do you can move up quickly. We’re a meritocracy.
Checkmate! This is my #1 selling point. I will never join a company that I don't think is a meritocracy. I want to know that my hard work will be awarded above any seniority-based or politcally-based merit system. My age, duration of employment, or who I know shouldn't play nearly as large of a factor as what I'm doing for the company. In the ideal world it should be based on contribution, teamwork and efficiency. If I'm not performing, I shouldn't be rewarded.
Join because you know you’ll be earning less than you could elsewhere at some meaningless job cranking out non-core code, producing Powerpoint slides or shuffling paper. You can always earn more. But join here if you want to grow.
Anyone who has worked for a large corporation knows what this point is referring to. Ever seen Office Space? Ever filled a TPS report? You get the picture.
Join because you like the culture. You think you’ll have fun. You’ll consider your colleagues close friends.
All three of these sentences could have been broken out into separate points as they are all crucial to enjoying your job. Start-up culture is jeans, flip-flops, t-shirts, music, beer and HR jokes. Mix these with close colleagues (aka friends) and you'll end up with fun. You're going to need to have fun because it will help offset the workload. You'll need that fun as an escape to the grind. If you don't think you'll have fun, don't take the job.
Join because in three year’s time when you look at this job and this company on your CV you’ll feel proud and it will be part of how you got where you were going.
I've been working at thredUP for 6 months and I could turn my previous 1 page resume into a stacked 2 page resume now. You'll be amazed at the amount of ground you can cover (project-wise) in a start-up. What's more important is that you'll have a sense of pride in your work. At a start-up, your contributions have a direct correlation to the company's success. When you go the extra mile, it actually means something. Someone will see it. The inverse of this applies as well. If you slack off at a start-up, you're only hurting yourself.
Join because as we grow our ability to reward you will grow and your income will grow with our success that you contributed to.
This point is the reward of being in a merit-based company. If you're killing it for a sustained amount of time at a start-up and you're being compensated with a salary sizeably less than industry standards and you don't have a vested interest, it's possible you're being taken advantage of. Being humble is a requirement at a start-up, but you must remain shrewd. Your time is an investment - make sure the return is proportionate to the contribution (even if the ROI isn't imminent). Shrewd patience will prevail...I hope.
We give out stock options. I hope they’re worth money to you some day. But let them be “icing on the cake.” If they pay off handsomely that’s great. But don’t count on it. Don’t let it be your motivator or your driving decision.
I think this is wise. A vested interest is a very strong motivator, but don't let it be the only one. If you care too much about options you might bail if the situation becomes temporarily bleak. 99% of start-ups won't have Facebook, Zynga, Twitter or Groupon valuations. Manage your expecations.
