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Do people who have been let go in this manner get looked down upon by future prospective interviewers? Or is it understood this happens regularly?

PragmaticPulp 6y ago
Officially, people aren’t “let go” from high ranking positions. They’re either gently demoted into a lesser role with the expectation that they are expected to find another job, or they “step away to spend more time with their families” or similar excuses. As for future prospects: Potential employers know that unemployed people are easier hires than employed people, so compensation might be lower. They might also be concerned about the reasons for the person’s dismissal, especially if the person’s tenure was short (1-2 years). On the other hand, an unemployed person is available to be hired ASAP, which can be attractive to fast moving startups who can’t afford to wait for months of recruiting, interviewing, negotiating, and then notice periods. Some times you’ll see these people hired into consultant roles first as a sort of trial run before real employment. In fact, many people who are dismissed from high-ranking startup positions voluntarily switch to consulting for a while anyway.
staysaasy 6y ago
Hey @shostack, thanks for reading! From what I've observed this does not tend to get looked down upon severely, and if anything it's usually the opposite. If someone sees that you took X from 0-100, they'll already be impressed even if you struggled at 100-1000 (unless that's very specifically what they need). It's also not that easy to do the forensics to realize that someone had trouble scaling, and most resume readers won't care enough to uncover that relatively minor detail. Additionally, many people transition out of scaling startups of their own accord – eg you get "topped" by an outside hire and bounce on good terms. People get it. There are tens of millions of interviewers out there, however, so YMMV for any one case.

PragmaticPulp 6y ago

Officially, people aren’t “let go” from high ranking positions. They’re either gently demoted into a lesser role with the expectation that they are expected to find another job, or they “step away to spend more time with their families” or similar excuses. As for future prospects: Potential employers know that unemployed people are easier hires than employed people, so compensation might be lower. They might also be concerned about the reasons for the person’s dismissal, especially if the person’s tenure was short (1-2 years). On the other hand, an unemployed person is available to be hired ASAP, which can be attractive to fast moving startups who can’t afford to wait for months of recruiting, interviewing, negotiating, and then notice periods. Some times you’ll see these people hired into consultant roles first as a sort of trial run before real employment. In fact, many people who are dismissed from high-ranking startup positions voluntarily switch to consulting for a while anyway.

staysaasy 6y ago

Hey @shostack, thanks for reading! From what I've observed this does not tend to get looked down upon severely, and if anything it's usually the opposite. If someone sees that you took X from 0-100, they'll already be impressed even if you struggled at 100-1000 (unless that's very specifically what they need). It's also not that easy to do the forensics to realize that someone had trouble scaling, and most resume readers won't care enough to uncover that relatively minor detail. Additionally, many people transition out of scaling startups of their own accord – eg you get "topped" by an outside hire and bounce on good terms. People get it. There are tens of millions of interviewers out there, however, so YMMV for any one case.