4 ms·

how does one find startups to work for? I enjoy intensity, chaos, and learning in my job and my big corp job is just not providing that. I'm planning on moving

how does one find startups to work for? I enjoy intensity, chaos, and learning in my job and my big corp job is just not providing that. I'm planning on moving to one of the tech hubs next year and trying to work at a startup of sorts, not sure where to start

gkoberger 8y ago
I've never met a startup that wasn't desperate to hire :) That being said, many startups ignore inbound applications, because the signal to noise ratio is so bad. If you want to work at a startup, I'd recommend a few of the following: 1/ Apply for A-List, Hired.com or Triplebyte 2/ Look at Who's Hiring posts on HN 3/ Update your LinkedIn and AngelList to seem hire-able (but not TOO hire-able!) Use a real pic of yourself, have a personal website with a resume, and fill out info about jobs you've had. (Related: put your name/info in your HN profile!) 4/ Have friends at startups? Talk to them! Everyone at a startup knows someone who is hiring.
- strikelaserclaw 8y ago
  awesome points, in your experience does having experience in big corp tech (am a .NET dev) hamper your success in getting hired at a startup? I really do enjoy the .NET world and invested many hours in it, i would hate that to be a crutch.
  - gkoberger 8y ago
    Good and bad news! The bad news is there's way fewer .NET startups out there (most are Ruby/Node/Python). But the good news is that you'll have a lot less competition for jobs! StackShare has a way to search job listings by language: https://stackshare.io/match?selectedTools=dot-net&searchOperator=AND https://stackshare.io/match?selectedTools=dot-net&searchOper...
dumbfounder 8y ago
Go to startup oriented meetups in your city.
- strikelaserclaw 8y ago
  how do i find those?
  - Kagerjay 8y ago
    meetup.com
OmarIsmail 8y ago
https://www.workatastartup.com/ https://www.workatastartup.com/ HN who's hiring threads (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17663077 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17663077) TripleByte.com Angellist.com Hired.com Between all of those, if you're good, then you'll be swimming in startup opportunities.
- strikelaserclaw 8y ago
  awesome, I'll check these sites out. thanks for the input
titanomachy 8y ago
TripleByte gets plugged a lot on HN, but I think a lot of people still don't realize what a great time investment it is. I woke up early and did their 3-hour interview before going to work one day. Within a week I'd been offered 30+ on-site interviews at well-funded Bay Area startups, as well as a couple of bigger companies (Palantir, Stripe). Their interview was engaging and challenging and produced lots of useful feedback. You also get lots of chances to talk to the founders of companies (or sometimes employees for the bigger ones) and evaluate whether an on-site is worth your time. Especially valuable if you lack a big name on your resume and can't open doors that way.
gnulinux 8y ago
Find a startup that's actually trying to solve a problem. "Uber but for college kids" is not a problem. E.g. "how do you make aviation safer" is an actual problem and if you can find a startup attacking this problem using technology, it might be interesting to work with. Imho -- I'm currently working in a startup solving what I believe to be a real problem -- it's a fun ride to work in a startup, it's stressful but you learn a lot. I recently graduated from college (UC Berkeley) and I can't say my learning muscles found time to relax. It's all about what problems you can solve.

gkoberger 8y ago

I've never met a startup that wasn't desperate to hire :) That being said, many startups ignore inbound applications, because the signal to noise ratio is so bad. If you want to work at a startup, I'd recommend a few of the following: 1/ Apply for A-List, Hired.com or Triplebyte 2/ Look at Who's Hiring posts on HN 3/ Update your LinkedIn and AngelList to seem hire-able (but not TOO hire-able!) Use a real pic of yourself, have a personal website with a resume, and fill out info about jobs you've had. (Related: put your name/info in your HN profile!) 4/ Have friends at startups? Talk to them! Everyone at a startup knows someone who is hiring.

strikelaserclaw 8y ago
awesome points, in your experience does having experience in big corp tech (am a .NET dev) hamper your success in getting hired at a startup? I really do enjoy the .NET world and invested many hours in it, i would hate that to be a crutch.
- gkoberger 8y ago
  Good and bad news! The bad news is there's way fewer .NET startups out there (most are Ruby/Node/Python). But the good news is that you'll have a lot less competition for jobs! StackShare has a way to search job listings by language: https://stackshare.io/match?selectedTools=dot-net&searchOperator=AND https://stackshare.io/match?selectedTools=dot-net&searchOper...

dumbfounder 8y ago

Go to startup oriented meetups in your city.

strikelaserclaw 8y ago
how do i find those?
- Kagerjay 8y ago
  meetup.com

OmarIsmail 8y ago

https://www.workatastartup.com/ https://www.workatastartup.com/ HN who's hiring threads (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17663077 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17663077) TripleByte.com Angellist.com Hired.com Between all of those, if you're good, then you'll be swimming in startup opportunities.

strikelaserclaw 8y ago
awesome, I'll check these sites out. thanks for the input

titanomachy 8y ago

TripleByte gets plugged a lot on HN, but I think a lot of people still don't realize what a great time investment it is. I woke up early and did their 3-hour interview before going to work one day. Within a week I'd been offered 30+ on-site interviews at well-funded Bay Area startups, as well as a couple of bigger companies (Palantir, Stripe). Their interview was engaging and challenging and produced lots of useful feedback. You also get lots of chances to talk to the founders of companies (or sometimes employees for the bigger ones) and evaluate whether an on-site is worth your time. Especially valuable if you lack a big name on your resume and can't open doors that way.

gnulinux 8y ago

Find a startup that's actually trying to solve a problem. "Uber but for college kids" is not a problem. E.g. "how do you make aviation safer" is an actual problem and if you can find a startup attacking this problem using technology, it might be interesting to work with. Imho -- I'm currently working in a startup solving what I believe to be a real problem -- it's a fun ride to work in a startup, it's stressful but you learn a lot. I recently graduated from college (UC Berkeley) and I can't say my learning muscles found time to relax. It's all about what problems you can solve.