Some quick advice from me, Rishi, on how to approach finding a job at a startup.
Figuring out what you want out of your career is so dependent on you*.*** Not what people want you to do, or what they think you should do, but what YOU want.
One of the most valuable pieces of self-reflection I've done to explore this is to write a personal user manual. This is an exercise that I did as part of my onboarding for an apprenticeship with Steve Schlafman this past summer. Here's my personal user manual and a more generalized template you can use to complete the exercise. Dig deeper than you think you should, it's SO worth it.
Here's a handy list of 200+ possible core values. I like to say my top five are curiosity, levity, ikigai, empathy, and purpose. Look through and see what sticks!
Twitter is my favorite way to do this. Here's the value prop:
Here's A deep dive, 90 min talk , a quick deck of why Twitter is awesome.
(h/t) paige for finding these!
*Twitter is the most amazing networking and learning network ever built. For someone whose pursuing their dream job, or chasing a group of mentors or peers, itâs remarkable.
In any given field, 50-80% of the top experts in that field are on Twitter and theyâre sharing ideas, and you can connect to them or follow them in your personal feed.
If you get lucky enough and say something they find interesting, they might follow you, and the reason this becomes super interesting is that unlocks direct messages, and now all of a sudden you can communicate directly or electronically with that individual. Very, very powerful. If youâre not using Twitter, youâre missing out.â*
It's hard. You probably don't give a shit about 95% of companies that exist (that's normal). Don't settle! Think about how your values and works style potentially fit into a company's mission, product, and culture. It takes some research but it's so worth it.
I'm a big proponent of going 80/20 on jobs. The quoted tweet from Sahil Lavingia below has some great examples of cold emails that make a difference. I'm linking below some of my past applications or 'personal pitches' that helped me develop relationships (note, I didn't say network because that term is so loadedâ it really is all about the people. Each of these 'pitches' took about 2 hours, and each of them got positive responses. They were fun to work on since I had conviction in my passion for each opportunity. I can't say that 6 hours of just sending applications in cold would have gotten four responses...
You'll never regret putting in this time doing the focused research and finding where you fit into the company of your dreams! Best case you manifest a job you love, second best case you discover that you don't actually love a job you thought you'd love, and worst case you know a bunch about a really high quality company.