30 tips for landing a job at a tech startup

The job interview is a two-way street. It’s an opportunity for the interviewer to learn about your qualifications and for you to get a feel for the company culture and specifics of the role. As an interviewee, it is crucial that you do your homework and come prepared to an interview with creative questions. Great interview questions demonstrate to your potential employer that you’ve done thorough research, are able to think critically, and have the intellectual curiosity necessary to thrive in an innovative startup environment. Having no questions for the interviewer is a huge red flag, and having boilerplate questions you got from Monster.com comes off as lazy and uninspired.

Use job platforms made specifically for tech and startups when searching for open positions such as AngelList, Glassdoor, or BuiltIn platform. Also, many venture capital (VC) firms list their portfolio companies, which is a great way to find venture-backed startups.

Genuine enthusiasm and fascination with a company’s product or mission goes a long way in a job interview at a startup.

Look to VC funding news sites like Crunchbase to see which companies have recently raised money and are likely hiring.

Even if you’re not looking to land a technical position, taking some free online courses in  Structured Query Language (SQL) or Python coding will show that you’re interested in tech and eager to learn.

How does the company you’re applying to make money? Do they use software as a service for a B2B audience like Salesforce CRM does? Or do they reach consumer audiences like Headspace does with their app? Perhaps they share an e-commerce focus with Warby Parker, a company that harnesses technology to make its e-commerce business possible. Another example would be Buzzfeed, who uses an advertising and content subscription business model.
 

Attending local tech networking events is still the best way to make a connection with a potential future employer.

Entrepreneurs love to see the startup spirit in job candidates. Having a side project where you wrote a Python script to analyze your friends’ Spotify music listening habits or you made a Shopify website to sell your artwork shows that you are a self-starter.

The majority of tech startups have a business model based on a well-defined product offering. The product is the lifeblood of the organization and everyone at the company—regardless of their department—needs to have a detailed understanding of how it works. On top of product knowledge, most startups foster a real passion within the team for the product and what it can accomplish. In your interview, it is absolutely essential you demonstrate that you understand the product and believe in its potential. The best way to show you’ve bought into a company’s product is to bring constructive feedback to the table in your interview.

LinkedIn is the go-to recruiting platform for employers. Make sure your profile is top notch and showcases your accomplishments. You should be actively engaging with content related to your potential industry on the platform to show that you’re in the know.

You should know everything there is to know about your would-be employers’ competitors; how those competitors product offerings compare, and how the market they operate in is carved up.

You should understand that working in tech and working at a startup can be two incredibly different things. While big tech companies may promote the kind of laid back working culture synonymous with startups, they are fundamentally different professional experiences. Startups usually have a small team where you’ll be expected to assume larger responsibility quickly and may be required to take on projects outside the scope of your current abilities as the needs of the business grow. Larger corporate positions in well-established tech companies may not offer the same opportunities for professional growth or horizontal movement.

Working for a startup is hard work, but the upside can be huge if you get in at the ground floor and prove your value. Scrappy cash-strapped startups may offer an undermarket salary to start, but don’t let that deter you if you are genuinely excited about what a company is doing.

A recent study by Glassdoor found that 43% of open tech roles are for non-technical support positions, so don’t think you’re not qualified to work in tech because you can’t code.

Good startups are generally venture-backed, have an executive team of seasoned industry professionals, and are willing to offer employees ownership in the form of stock options.

An employee referral is the surest way to land an interview. Use LinkedIn’s job search for open positions via your own network. That way you can find companies where you have connections and explore those options first.

Use LinkedIn to reach out to people currently in the role you’re applying to and ask for a few minutes of their time to chat about the role. Chances are if the company is hiring then they’re encouraging their team to help with the recruiting process and team members would be happy to share their experience in the role with applicants. And if you really hit it off, they may put in a good word for you and get your application fast-tracked to the interview stage.

STAR stands for situation, task, action, and result. There is nothing worse for an interviewer than watching a candidate ramble trying to answer a direct question about their professional experience. Using this framework, when applicable, is the clearest way to structure your interview responses.

Situation: My company’s newsletter needed a larger audience to attract higher quality advertisers consistent with our brand.
Task: My goal was to grow subscribers by 30% in the next six months.
Action: I designed a paid social media campaign to promote the newsletter.
Result: We grew the subscriber base by 50% in the first six months of running the campaign and as a result, we were able to attract the advertisers we wanted.

Researching the company you’re applying to should be common sense, but some candidates are still doing inadequate preparatory work for interviews. Tech companies, especially smaller ones, often struggle to get press, but you can bet the company website has an active blog and social media presence with company updates. It’s impressive when a candidate makes a specific reference to an article from a company’s blog from several months ago during an interview.

Startups and people in the startup world often face seemingly insurmountable challenges and outright failures. When evaluating a candidate, startups want to see someone who sees adversity as an opportunity for learning and growth. Have a good struggle story and be ready to share what you learned from the experience.

One way to stand out in the application process is to engage with the company’s social media online.

Here’s a quick way to identify your professional strengths: Pick two of the following profiles that sound the most like you.

The Visionary: The visionary is naturally drawn toward long-term and high-level thinking. She could spend all day brainstorming and is never short on creative, innovative ideas.

The Designer: The designer is a meticulous planner and data-driven analyst with sound, reasoned judgement. She can't help but break down a situation into its components and understand how all the pieces fit together.

The Builder: The builder is a process-oriented do-er that values order and efficiency. She thrives implementing systems, standards, and processes, and she always delivers.  

The Influencer: The influencer is an empathetic, top-notch communicator who can relate to anyone. She loves building personal relationships, helping others, and working in teams.

Here’s the tech departments that align well with the strength profiles you chose on the last slide.

The Visionary: Marketing, product

The Designer: Engineering, finance and accounting

The Builder: Customer success, business operations

The Influencer: Sales, business development, human resources
 

Startups are looking for candidates that are inspired by their professional and personal lives. Having hobbies and interests outside of work shows employers that you can maintain work-life balance and that you’re an interesting, well-rounded person they would be lucky to work with.

Finding a professional mentor in the tech ecosystem is one of the quickest ways to get up to speed on the tech industry in general and make important connections. If you can’t find a connection personally, LinkedIn recently launched a Career Advice tool to help find mentors when looking for specific pieces of career advice. There’s also more specialized mentorship platforms like BuiltbyGirls to help connect aspiring female tech professionals with mentors.

Startup founders and executives are often far more accessible than their corporate counterparts. Take a shot and try to get in front of them at an event they’re speaking at, or even reach out through email or social media.

When entering the tech job world for the first time, be realistic about which roles you’re qualified for. If your dream job is a product manager role, but you don’t have any product management experience, you should look for entry-level analyst positions in the same department. Odds are if you perform well, you’ll have the opportunity to move into that dream job eventually.

With some startups having fewer employees than a football squad, it is crucial you can demonstrate that you have a successful track record of being a team player.

This may seem obvious, but a lot of people still don’t actually go through the process of mock interviewing before the real interview. You can’t prepare for the pressure of a formal interview situation by researching on your own. If you don’t have a professional connection that can sit down and perform a mock interview with you, ask a close friend or family member. It’s important to practice talking through interview questions out loud. Record the interview and identify the areas that need work, then repeat. Practice makes perfect.

Startups can certainly be a roller coaster of highs and lows, and the attitude of the team is often times what allows a company to persist through the lows and make the next high even greater than the last. Show a company that you’d make a valuable addition to the team by exhibiting positivity throughout the application process. Be upbeat about the company’s growth prospects, excited about the role you’re applying for, and confident you have what it takes to make an impact.