I am looking to get a job at a startup. Should I be reaching out to several at once? Or one by one?

Question

I am looking to get a job at a startup. Should I be reaching out to several at once? Or one by one?

4 Answers

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Answer 1

It really depends on you , if you can juggle many at once , work under stress or not , it all depends , more importantly do u have the time to do several jobs at once? For me I would probably do one job at a time , because I don't want to be stressed out and be too busy , but it depends on the job , maybe Mcdonalds , and you might do KFC as well , that is ok as you don't have to deal with much stress and you don't have to do full time unless you want to , but if its a harder job , do it one at a time good luck :D

Answer 2

Firstly, I'm not sure whether, by "reaching out", you mean applying to work at several startups - or whether you mean juggling roles at several different startups...

Looking to work in startups

If it's the first option, then of course you should be reaching out to as many people as you possibly can. LinkedIn is a great place to connect with people. Be friendly but direct, add the right people, post interesting and relevant stuff from time to time and you'll soon see what a powerful tool it can be!

I'd also recommend checking out the aptly named www.workinstartups.com

There are also a number of Twitter accounts worth following (including me @kassyassin) or you could take a punt and simply move to San Francisco!

Working for more than one startup

If what you're talking about is in fact taking on positions at more than one start up, then that is feasible - but it really depends on what kind of job you will be doing and how much time it will take up.

I'm currently trying to juggle 3 or 4 projects at the moment, and I can tell you now it's tough going. You will not have a life. You will not sleep. And people will resent the relationship you have with your laptop.

Here are some tips I'd throw in:

Be honest to yourself and others - there's no point taking on work you don't have time for. It'll just make you look bad and waste everyone's time.
Be organized. It's tough for some people (like me) but you need to be strict about time management and completing tasks.
Stay focused. It's easy to get distracted by things like Facebook or Twitter (especially if your job is to use Facebook or Twitter) so try and come up with a checklist of things you need to achieve each day.
Drink coffee.

Good luck and let me know how things turn out!

Answer 3

Okay, so if you are on the job search and
you're looking and applying to either many organization at once or to focus on
one organization at a time which strategy is better? Well that's up to you, the
benefit of focusing on a single job at a time is that you can really beat it
up. You can do all of your homework, understand the job, make contacts. Do
everything you can so that you have a best possible chance at landing that job.
And in doing that you basically leave no doubt behind in terms of what you
could have done to land that position. So if you are excited about a position,
I'd really encourage you to focus all of your efforts on that one position.

Now that being said, the downside of only
focusing on one job at a time is that other opportunities may be coming up at
the same time and you missed out on them because you're focus on the first
position and you don't end up getting that first job offer and so miss out on
these others. So if you're not passionate about that first job that you're
working for, you probably want to be reaching out to several at a time, see
what starts to happen and starts to grow into a real likely job offer at least
an interview and then focus your attention on those and widdle your list down
to just a couple or to just one, so by the time you reach the end of the
process you end up being focus on the place you exactly want to be and you end
up getting that job offer from that place.

Answer 4

I would definitely recommend applying to several startups jobs at once - the danger if you don't is it will take a very long time for you to find the right role.

I suggest finding 4-5 companies you really like and applying to them directly. Find a senior person and email them or message them on LinkedIn. Explain what it is you like about the company and how you think you can help them. Startups love a direct approach as it demonstrates a real interest in their business.

You can always keep an eye on job boards too - as has already been pointed out workinstartups.com is a good place to start, and angel.co is another.

Finally you can apply to our jobs platform, RiseHigh, which is dedicated to non-tech startup jobs in London. We actively match candidates with great roles which are right for them!