Large organisations are more forgiving, while startups are demanding; Most people don’t realise that
Editor’s note: This guest contribution is published as-is, save for some edits for headline and formatting consistency.
Not too long ago, I was on the look out for new staff to join our team. My company just obtained our crowdfunding license and we are expanding our Singapore operations. As I was looking for an employee to be in sales and user engagement, I posted on social media that I was looking for a fresh graduate, instead of someone with some work experience.
Not surprisingly, I received private messages from some acquaintances who wondered why that was the case – would CoAssets not benefit from hiring someone who had some relevant work experience? I agree that some hires do bring along a wealth of experience, but there are those who join a start-up with (a baggage of) expectations. We have hired mid-career employees and some have excelled in the company. Unfortunately, there were some who did not fit in and left after a while. Quite often, the reason why they did not fit in was due to mismatched expectations. Therefore if you are thinking of changing careers and are seriously considering joining a start-up, here are three things that you ought to know before you take the leap:
1. Pace: The difference in pace between a start-up and a large corporation is as different as night and day
A lot of corporate people claim they know that working in a start-up is very different as compared to working for a large organization, however many of them tend to underestimate how different it really is.
Firstly the culture of a start-up is fast faced and dynamic. Start-ups have to move fast and constantly pivot, not because it is a “trendy” thing to do. They move fast simply because they have no choice. Unlike big corporations, start-ups do not have deep (financial) reserves. They are fighting for survival on a monthly, weekly or even a daily basis.
They are constantly running against time to show results (in order to get the next round of funding) or to secure that large client (to make this month’s expense). As a result, they are often evolving and making the plan up as they go along. Constant changes do not mean that the start-up does not have a concrete business plan. The main difference is that a plan for a start-up comprising 10 employees will have less moving parts (and is more nimble) as compared to that of an MNC comprising 1,000 personnel.
2. Performance: You are expected to pull your weight and individual performance is extremely apparent
Most corporate folks do not realize that the large organizations are extremely forgiving. As big companies generally have more resources, they can afford to have specialized teams and committees to look at issues. They are also able to build redundancy within the company and break a function down into specialized roles.
My CTO and co-founder, Dr Seh used to work for one of the largest US microchip manufacturers. He once told me that his ex-company used to hire armies of PhD graduates to work for them. Even the employee who did data entry had a PhD degree. In such large organizations, poor performers can coast along as mid-level management do not want to fire them for the sake of “maintaining the peace”. Some of these mid-level managers would rather not be the “bad guy” and prefer to let things slide.
Also read: Why you should work at a startup at some point in your career
In comparison, the start-up environment is extremely demanding. Due to the small set-up, most employees may be holding on to several portfolios or performing multiple roles at any one time. Therefore, if the person is not capable or cannot deliver, the results will reveal themselves very quickly. In a start-up, non-performers do not have the luxury of hiding behind a team or committee and everyone is expected to deliver.
Despite the stress, those who can adapt quick enough will be given a lot of exposure and learning opportunity. Specific to CoAssets, we believe in putting our employees into challenging leadership roles, as I believe that a successful start-up is always trying to do more with less.
A case in point was the organizer for EPIC 2015. EPIC was a large-scale conference that my company used to put together. The event used to stretch over two days and attracted more than 500 attendees each day. Instead of engaging someone who had events management experience, I decided to put a high potential and driven 25-year old fresh graduate in charge of the event. With the help of several other full time colleagues and a number of interns, she was able to smoothly pull off the investor conference. The event was even nominated for a Singapore Tourism Board award that year. While the team eventually did not win, that employee felt a huge sense of pride that her work was being recognized, not only by the company but also by those in the industry. More importantly, she realized that despite the grueling workload and stressful environment, she would not have been given the opportunity (and training) in a much larger organization. Hence, there is little surprise that after more than 2 years, she is still going strong and working hard in CoAssets. I have always told my team that if they can survive in a start-up, they can make it anywhere – this is a classic example of what I mean.
So if you want to work for a start-up, you must be able to pull your own weight. If you are not prepared to give it you best, you will stick out like a sore thumb and you would be better off in a different environment.
3. Culture: Corporate culture is more individualistic while start-up culture is more teamwork
I once had a senior employee give up on the company. There was a period of time when the company was going through a rough patch. Not unexpectedly, he requested to leave and one of the reasons he gave was that he did not want to be the “last” person holding onto that particular appointment. His actions suggested that he did not think that the firm could make it and wanted to bail out before the ship started to sink.
As a senior employee, his subordinates looked to him for leadership and guidance. Instead of rallying his men and finding a solution to the company’s problems, he opted to leave. It affected his team’s morale and added to the business challenges that management had to address.
On hindsight, I do not really blame that particular employee. Given the high level of stress and pressure that the company was going through then, I might have done the same thing if I was in his position. However, it was at that moment that I realized how different culture between corporate businesses and start-ups was.
Putting things into perspective, it was probably a good thing that he left, as his temperament was too risk adverse for the job. He would not have been happy staying on and it could have made the situation worse. In the end, his departure meant that his slack had to be picked up. Fortunately, the rest of the employees saw themselves as part of a team and they all chipped in to help wherever they could. As a result, we all managed to turn the company around and the company is currently in a much better place.
My point of this example is to highlight the stark culture difference between a large corporate and a start-up. These days, we do it less in CoAssets. However, when the team was much smaller, say during our first two years of operation, our employees worked so hard that they even stayed overnight in the office – just to get an assignment done. Our earlier batch of employees was hardly calculative. They put in the additional hours without claiming time off and they willingly went beyond their scope of work just to help the company out. They gladly worked on weekends just to hit their sales quota and even paid for small expenses without claiming from the company.
If you are a corporate folk, you may probably cringe and view this as a form of employee exploitation. However, this is the “can do” culture that drives most successful start-ups – in the earlier stages at least. So if you are not mentally prepared to put in such levels of efforts and assume that working for a start-up is akin to another regular 9am to 6pm job, you may end up being quite unhappy.
Conclusion
So there you have it. These are the three things people thinking of doing a mid-career switch and go work for a start-up ought to know.
At the end of the day, a good way to contextualize the difference is to liken start-ups to fighter jets and large corporations to commercial jumbo jets. They are both built differently to achieve different things. More importantly, someone who excels in a start-up may not thrive in a large corporation and vice versa. What is more important is to find something that suits yourself and your temperament. Admittedly, working in a start-up is not everyone’s cup of tea. However, if you work hard and keep at it, the reward at the end of the journey may ultimately be worth the sacrifice.
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