Pitching Your Startup Experience to an Non-Startup Audience

Question: Does having a start-up or early-stage experience help or hinder your resume’s appeal?

The answer: Depends on the reader.

I know that’s a crummy answer, but it’s the truth.

If the reader has a background with firms that were with startup/early-stage, entrepreneurial, fast growing or rapidly changing business, they can see how the experience effects what you can offer a potential employer. If not, it’s more difficult.

Think of it like working outside your home country, it’s tough to truly appreciate until you cross the border.
Since you may move between established firms and start-ups, understanding how to position your experience to a non-Startup audience is important.

Having worked in and with start-up/early-stage firms for the past five years I can share some of the key upsides and downsides. There are loads of both, but these items that come up most frequently in either discussion with colleagues or what I’ve experienced firsthand.

UPSIDES:
These are the items to emphasize in a cover letter, pitch or within body of resume.

Fine tune your view of the customer: Without all the meetings, processes, etc. this is where you focus all of your attention on understanding the need, design a product to fulfill it, understand their motivation to buy, how to find them and convince them to put money in your wallet. There’s not a company on the planet that does not want to serve their customer better. This is the best thing going for a start-up, that ability to get to the absolute essentials of bringing revenue into the business.

Visibility to the entire business process: This is the second best thing going for a startup; you get to see the entire delivery process to a client – from product, pricing, operations through collection of cash. You learn both what’s truly essential to running the business and when to add functions to your company.

Expand and Understand Your Skills: Titles are given, but generally optional when it comes to getting the work done. Those skills you were good at become great; those skills you were okay at become better. My titles have been CFO, but my tasks have including designing web pages, developing a social media plan, creating sales tools, and operating manuals. I’d never say you’ll become an expert, but you certainly learn to use what you’ve got and how to deal with situations where you have little past experience. In a small firm, you are pretty open about your strengths (also it’s hard to hide) and when to ask for help – which makes you a more effective member of a team to accomplish a given task.

Speed of Decision-Making/Risk Taking: Due to a variety of constraints, you learn to move quickly with less information. More importantly, you learn to focus on the ‘right’ information. How you approach risk is also finely tuned, because you learn to balance the need to move quickly and the risk that a bad decision can sink the firm. You move to try new ideas quickly, but you move to shut down rotten ideas with equal speed.

Problems = Innovation: There’s always some problem or roadblock to overcome. Whether it’s too little capital, change in client behavior, your solution did not work exactly right, or new competitors, you learn to adapt your original vision of what you bring to market. Because of their frequency, you become enamored with what you can deliver, less on how it’s delivered. Innovation extends well beyond the initial idea into how to make the idea commercially viable.

DOWNSIDES:
A non-startup audience may often view the following items as less than favorable because of how they differ from their typically established company perspective. I describe the traits and how to offset it in your pitch, etc. When it comes to the downsides, my advice is to assassinate the assassin, by directly addressing the issues that may derail your chances.

You could not get job in big firm: There is a common belief that traditional firms were not interested in you, so you went to a start-up.

Offsetting argument: The reality is that given the risk of capital, the investors, board and management tend to be very choosey as to who gets hired. They have both capital and reputation on the line, and when it comes to raising capital for their next deal, protecting these is critical.

Failure or non-performance of start-up: It’s the nature of the beast and no one is immune. You are defining a new product, new market or both and with this come higher risk.

Offsetting argument: It’s this risk that enables the upsides noted above, however, without a roadmap, processes or history – you are likely to make mistakes. You can compare a start-up success rate to a number of projects, products in a large firm.

Nomadic lifestyle: People will see that you may have worked with a number of start-ups in a short period of time. There are three primary reasons why this might be true. First, it can take several tries to find the right deal and you may have to jump in to figure it out. Second, not every start-up needs your skill full-time after launch; your work can be a project to get the business launched. Third, the business does not succeed or grow, so it’s time to try a new one because they cannot afford you or there’s no upside.

Offsetting argument: Start-up investors lay bets on a large number of start-ups with the belief that 1 in 10 or 20 will have a significant return that more than offsets the deals that goes sideways. They go into deals knowing that many will not succeed; the tough part is that they don’t which one up front.

CAVEATS:
Before pitching someone, learn their background and their firms. For their firms, remember that big does not always equal stodgy, and may view itself as very entrepreneurial for their size.

The non-startup audience is not wrong in their view of skills, simply different than you. It’s your responsibility to help them appreciate the startup experience.

Your experience will vary in scope and depth. Before you head out to pitch yourself, take an inventory of your experiences – you’ll be surprised at what you’ve learned!

If your start-up hit it big, then skip the above and promote the end result, you’ve punched your ticket.

Good luck today.

Mark

www.candidateschair.com/blog

http://TwitJobs.net The Career Community

Interview Performance: In Transition Candidate Versus The Employed Candidate

Have you ever wondered if being in-transition makes you less attractive in an interview?  The answer may be “Yes”, but not for the reasons you may think.

My colleague Marcia Ballinger from Keystone Search and I were having coffee and we got on the topic of interviewing.  She shared some amazing insight into how in-transition candidates effectively derail their chances during the interview.

Marcia has submitted many in-transition candidates for her clients’ consideration because they have the right skills and experiences that make them attractive to a client – regardless of their employment status.  Also, Marcia’s firm has sat in interviews as an observer for the past five years, so she has seen both types of candidates in action.

She noted distinct patterns of behavior from the in-transition candidates derailed their chances for the role because they made themselves an ‘outlier’ compared other candidates – but in the wrong direction.

Much like that old joke about when you and buddy are being chased by a bear, you don’t have to run faster than the bear, just your buddy.  When it comes to hiring, the candidate selected is not the best at everything, they are simply better than the other candidates. 

Here are the traits that Marcia has seen from in-transition candidates are going to get you caught by the bear.

• ·         They talk more and listen less. 
• ·         They are very quickly convinced that an opportunity is “perfect” for them, even when they don’t have all the facts.   Marcia said that she frequently has in-transition candidates proclaim that they are ‘perfect’ for a position, even before they have seen a job description.  (Writer comment: For an executive position, these can be literally ‘million dollar’ decisions given the potential impact of the executive on a business.  Who makes million dollar decisions with no information?) 
• 
  
• ·       They lean forward.
• ·         They don’t always wait for the speaker to finish answering the question.
• ·         They are glib, surface, and less “thoughtful.”
• ·         They talk faster, as though they are trying to “squeeze” more in.
• ·         They seek to persuade, not to understand.

Having interviewed during my own transition, I’ll admit to being guilty of these behaviors.  At the time I felt as though I was displaying my eagerness and interest, but now I see it was my anxious feelings shining through.  

How does someone with a job behave during an interview?  Here’s what Marcia has observed:

·         These people are picky.  They are choosey.

·         Instead of trying to convince, they are waiting to be convinced.

·         They are genuinely interested in learning more and investigating whether the opportunity could be a fit.  But, they do not come in convinced that it IS a fit.

·         There tends to be more mutuality in the discussions with employed candidates.  Employed candidates see themselves as ‘peers’, so the interview is more like two business people having a meeting.

·         For the hiring executive, it feels more like a regular meeting between a boss and a staff member, and less like an outsider, or a “salesperson.”

For you and me, these types of ‘insider’ insights are pure gold since its behavior from fellow candidates – both what’s working and what’s not.  However, Marcia made another point which I think is more relevant: The in-transition candidates’ behaviors arise from their circumstances and build over time; therefore, they need to work harder to suppress these behaviors.

The employed candidate comes into the interview with the ability to walk away, which gives them a position of strength.  They feel less overall risk and certainty no reason to push or persuade.  This is why the discussion is more relaxed and interactive.

Can an in-transition candidate give themselves the walk away power?  While perhaps not at the same level of the employed candidate, you can get close if you go into an interview with this mindset: I don’t want to be interviewing a year from now; therefore, I need to be sure this is a job where I can truly succeed and will be retained.

If this approach helps you avoid being back in-transition in the near term, it’s a powerful motivation to help you make sure this is the right position.  (If you are at the point, either financially or emotionally, that you to just get into a role please see: The Art of Settling for Less).

My thanks to Marcia for sharing this amazing insight that will help all of us get the most out of our interviews.

Good luck today!

Mark

http://TwitJobs.net The Career Community

Good Question: How to Avoid Networking Burnout

I blog on Proformative.com (on-line community for finance executives), this is one of the questions that I was recently asked.

Good question:

I have been in interview mode for about 8 months. How do I refresh from this process so that I don't start to sound like a "canned speech". I am networking and in interviews, phone and in person probably about 25 hours per week. Selling yourself starts to become tedious.

My answer:

Before I begin, if you are feeling burned out - take a break. Cancel your networking meetings. You only have one chance to impress and no matter how you try, if you feel burned out - it comes through to whomever you are meeting. Trust me, I've been on both sides of this equation. No one buys from a sales person who lacks confidence - and you are your number 1 sales person!

I found that burnout is a combination of three factors: low psyche (from not getting a role or being treated poorly in process), repetition of process (different people, same pitch) and too many similar meetings (all hat, no cattle).

1.       For the low psyche - two ideas:

·         Define 'success' as those actions that got you an interview or moved the hiring process ahead. If you only define success as getting a new role, then it's tough to feel like you accomplished anything. Keep a running list of accomplishments for each week - 2 or 3. It's these little accomplishments that will add up over time. (Also see my post on Redefining Success)

·        Pick a project that you can accomplish in short-time. Whether as volunteer, contractor or at home - I had a list of projects I could knock out. Gave me the rhythm of being at work, where I had the sense of moving things ahead.

I know both of these two may sound like parlor tricks, but the first is about what to expect from yourself and the second reminds you that bring value to a firm. I've given this advice several times and had good feedback - I've also used it for myself.

2.       Repetition:

What varied this for me was practicing the "80% Rule", where 80% of my networking was focused on the other person. This strategy is a long-term investment in building a relationship because you are focusing on what you can do for that person - but I can guarantee it never gets boring.

You will get your chance to pitch, but it's usually not the same - because most people return the favor and start to ask different questions and the networking becomes more collaborative. (See the resource "Networking Checklist" and blog post "Making Networking Effective - Your Timing is Everything".)

3.       Too many meetings:

One of my mistakes in search was too much networking. I was taking too many of the same meetings or not making the most of my meetings.

For taking too many of the 'same meetings', try the "Daily Point System". This tool will help you allocate your time to those meetings which make a difference.

For not make the most of my meetings, see the blog post "Roadmap to the Hiring Manager", this was my discovery of aligning my request for help with the networking contact's level of relationship with the hiring manager.  In short, asking for help that they can truly deliver.

This is just a starter and I hope this helps.

Good luck today.

Mark

www.candidateschair.com - Networking and job search advice from candidates for candidates.  Please take a visit to get free tools and advice.

http://TwitJobs.net The Career Community

Making Networking Effective – Your Timing is Everything

Your timing of delivering your story makes all the difference of whether or not a meeting is successful or not.  A story or pitch is only effective once you’ve fully engaged the other person.

WHY THEY WANT TO BE THERE

“Interested, but need to be engaged” is what I call people who have agreed to network with you.  They agreed to network because of a mutual connection or desire to help, so they are interested.

You want them engaged from the start; therefore you must begin the meeting by showing them why they want to be there.  We all have self-interest and desire to be appreciated.  We also know when those two elements are fulfilled; we are far more likely to engage in whatever activity lies ahead of us.

While not scientific, the chart below will illustrate where to put your attention to get the most of a meeting.

Let’s slice up the meeting into four sections and

Initial Impression: It starts with simple professional courtesy, being on time, etc., but it continues with setting the stage by establishing why you wanted to meet, expected outcome and that you are looking to network with them.

Selling Phase: The initial impression you want to set is that there is a good meeting ahead, which gets their interest.  Now you want to stoke that interest, by beginning with them and using the 80% rule by offering help from your network via connections or information and understanding if there are other areas you can help.  During this time you do not focus on yourself at all.

Telling Phase: The connections and help you offer have opened the door for you to make a very simple pitch.  The pitch should be the 2-3 important messages that want your connection to remember after the meeting.   To make a message about a skill or experience memorable is to accompany it with an outcome or important lesson.  If someone would like to learn more about any of the 2-3 message, they will ask.

Remember to always watch your networking contact’s eyes and body language.  Take a tip from my experience, just because I thought a point was compelling it does not mean everyone does.  I’ve tried using a different way to explain my message.  At the first sign of a loss of interest, it’s time to move to the close.

Close: To send your contact with motivation to help, close the meeting with your follow-up actions.  Most people will respond with their own actions, if they do not, it’s not a cause for worry.  Once a meeting starts to finish most people begin to think about the rest of their day.

Changing your contact from ‘interested’ to ‘engaged’ will make the world of difference.

Hope this helps.

Mark

http://TwitJobs.net The Career Community

Anytime, Anywhere, Anyplace - When Keeping Your Options Open Yields Lower Results

Your objective in networking is to build a relationship that mutually benefits each party.


The first step in building in defining how you can help one another, as once this is defined the networking can really get underway.

You’ll do research and listen during your first meeting to get ideas for where you can help one another. Now what?

You will be tempted (like all of us) to use the approach called “Anyplace, Anytime, Anywhere” where you keep the networking very general to keep all the options for helping one another open.

However, while it may appear counterintuitive, the more focused you become on a single area for each of you to begin, the greater the result. Because this gives you something to act upon and it is action that truly builds a relationship.

I’ll use a live example from my job search to show how ‘keeping all options open’ does not work. Here’s how I answered questions during a networking meeting.

Q: What size company are you targeting?

A: My experience could work at any size company.

Q: What industry are you interested in?

A: I have service industry experience, but I’m open to all industries.

Q: Public or Private firm…

You know where my meeting was going: Nowhere. I came across as either uncertain of my skills or interests. I gave my networking contact nothing to work on to make connections or help identify possible jobs (I have also sat through countless meetings where I received similar answers).

One of my favorite examples of where taking a very specific focus is very effective, the 37Signals team’s (www.37signals.com) approach for building software. They intentionally design less features and scope in order to deliver a specific need of high importance to their clients. Their philosophy is to establish a very clear relationship with the buyer as to what they should expect to receive. The smaller focus also enables them to deliver. (Writer note: I’m totally underselling the 37Signals story, recommend you visit their site or better yet read one of their books to get the full spirit of the firm and their accomplishments).

What is interesting is that once I narrowed my search focus (very narrow), I was finding myself interviewing more often based upon leads from my networking contacts. On the flipside, I also found myself delivering more networking referrals. Mutual benefit = Mission Accomplished.

The lesson here is to start small by picking a specific topic or 3-4 tangible actions where the two of you can help one another. You will get immediate results and a nice momentum to start this professional relationship.

Good luck today!

Mark Richards

www.candidateschair.com




http://TwitJobs.net The Career Community

Should you ask for Informational Interviews?

A colleague on Linked recently posed a question to me on how to improve their response on requests for informational interviews.


My answer was to just ask them for a networking meeting and do not use the term “informational interview”. My experience in trying both paths is that the term “informational interview” has two perceptions/barriers that lower your chances of getting someone to agree to meet with you:

People do not like to say “No”: There is always an expectation of a job with anything called an interview. No matter how hard to tell yourself or the interviewer, there’s always the hope that the interviewer will end the meeting by pulling a job opening out of their desk drawer.

As an interviewer, you know there is no role and will likely need to say “We’re not hiring”, “You are an amazing candidate, but…” or “No” to the candidate who asks if there are any available positions. So why agree to meet with someone so you can disappoint them? It’s easier to just ignore the request.

Interview requires preparation: If there is no job, but you are doing an interview – it means like you have to act like there is one and be ready. If you think this person is important to meet, so do others. So why make them do work to meet with you.

A request to network has no implications or expectations. You simply state you are interested in the industry and want to get their insight. Be prepared with questions on how their firm operates and you will walk away with loads of insight. If a role does pop up, you’ve got an inside edge on how to tailor your resume and get ready.

With luck, you may get other connections in the firm – which is great as the more people you can tell your story, the higher your chances of getting connected to positions that come open. Ask any good sales person, they are always working multiple contacts at each firm.

My advice is to ask for a cup of coffee, not an informational interview.

For tips on how to ask for a meeting, see my post on “Sharing the Secret Sauce”.

Good luck today!

Mark Richards

www.candidateschair.com

Job Search from a Candidate's Perspective - Advice and tools for search organization and networking



http://TwitJobs.net The Career Community

Keeping Your Psyche Strong during Job Search

The saying goes “Desperation does not work in dating or job search”. I can verify both of those when looking at my school years and my own job transition.


At one point in my search I had six solid job leads go completely dark within a week’s time. I remember going to a 7 a.m. networking meeting the following Monday. Big mistake – I wasted a good networking opportunity. When I got home, I cancelled all of my job search activities for the next two days, so I could get my psyche back in order and avoid a downward spiral (which we all know can be tough to pull out of). I also sent follow-up notes and apologized to my contacts, I told them exactly what happened and apologized for not being in top form.

I recognize this advice to cancelling meetings can come across as a bit extreme. But it is not, a strong psyche is more important than a strong resume. Ask yourself this question: How often have you made a major purchase or commitment from a less than enthusiastic salesperson? The answer is “Not very often, if at all”. As for the follow-up notes, not much I could do after the bomb went off, but was a sign of respect and managing my reputation.

In the end, a job search is like making a sale and you need to believe in the product (yourself) before anyone else will.

Both asking someone to introduce you to their network, much less a hiring decision, is asking someone to ‘buy’ your story. No matter how hard we try to put a ‘good face’, if your psyche is in the dumps, it comes across during your networking and interviews.

If a job search is selling, you have to believe yourself first before anyone else will.

Once I took the time off, here is what has worked for me many a time to boost my psyche. Make a list of small projects that you would like to accomplish. When you feel down, pull out the list and work like mad to finish the project. The sense of progress, accomplishment and putting your mind somewhere else for a stretch of time will work wonders. Trust me.

There are loads of other good ideas like volunteering, etc. – whatever they are, put them on the list and keep it handy. It’s not a question of ‘if’, but ‘when’ you will use it.

Remember, if you run into someone who needs to take a break – do them a favor and tell them.

Good luck today.

Mark Richards

www.candidateschair.com



http://TwitJobs.net The Career Community

Using Twitter to Promote Yourself during a Job Search

Twitter is another great tool in the toolbox to promote your qualifications during a job search. The intent is to have potential employers and networking contacts read your tweets.


A couple of thoughts to help get you started

1. Keep it professional and positive

2. Focus on your profession only – especially where you can give advice from personal experience

3. If you have skills that cannot be easily trained, put those in your tweets, as employers will need to hire someone with them

4. Tweet on issues/experiences that will likely be raised in an interview/networking

5. Before starting to Tweet. Write your first 50 tweets. People will go to your profile and review your tweets – so best to have them organized versus random thoughts. So tweet with purpose (I’d wager no one has ever told you that before).

6. Retweet other good thoughts from people you follow – recognizing good content is as valuable as giving it

7. Manage who you follow and who follows you (e.g. Blocking anyone who has ‘Check out my hot profile’ is a good tip)

Put your Twitter ID on your business cards (along the URLs for personal blogs, LinkedIn profile, etc.) – so people know you’re tweeting.

Good luck today!

Mark Richards

www.candidateschair.com




http://TwitJobs.net The Career Community

Question: If I know who the hiring manager is, should I connect to them directly or their colleagues?

I answer questions on job search and networking for Proformative.com (on-line forum for finance professionals to share information), here is an excellent question.

======================
Response:

Assuming the interview process is not in the late stages, you will want to approach the hiring manager in two steps: Learn and Influence.


LEARN:

To differentiate yourself from other candidates, you want to promote the experiences/style that best fits what the company needs.

Meeting with company insiders will help you understand the business model, department and current issues. You will want to meet with people outside the department to give you a well-rounded view. If time allows, meeting with vendors (e.g. auditors) can also give you an objective view.

Even if you’ve worked for the company before, I would recommend refreshing your information to understand the most important issues (e.g. integrating new software, cash crunch, etc.)

INFLUENCE:

There are people who have a strong relationship with the hiring manger that can promote you to the hiring manager. In ascending order of influence: outside colleague, direct report, peer, and boss – their relationship with the hiring manager gives their recommendation more weight.

The reason these people will be compelled to promote/introduce you to the hiring manager is the effectiveness of your pitch (both content and delivery) – short, relevant and convincing is what makes you memorable.

The best experience does not always win; it’s usually the person who can best explain how they can use their experience on behalf of the company.

IF TIME IS SHORT: I would recommend getting to someone in the hiring manager’s department to get a sense of the most critical issues. Switching to phone versus face-to-face reduces the effectiveness of the ability to influence, but allows you to talk with more people in a short time.

IF THE COMPANY IS SMALL: Same process, except the lines between Learn and Influence are blurred – since people are likely to have a relationship with the hiring manager.

Here’s a post that may add some additional insight: http://candidateschair.com/roadmap-to-the-hiring-manager/

Hope this helps.

Mark
Creator, Candidateschair.com - Job Search and Networking from a Candidate's Perspective



http://TwitJobs.net The Career Community

A question you probably screw up - What Do You Do?

There are some pretty simple questions in this world.  Questions we get almost everyday whether career networking or seeing old friends.  And screw up.  Like these:

How are you?

How are you feeling?

What’s up?

So why do we screw them up so bad?  To me these questions are hard because they are asked out of context.  And asked by people who may not actually care for the answer.  Often the first verbal exchange. After the initial eye dancing.

Read the entire blog post at http://community.twitjobs.net

http://TwitJobs.net The Career Community