Want an Enterprise Job? Begin in a Startup
If you’re trying to break into a position at a large company, consider beginning at the same position at a startup.
Let’s face it- many new graduates and mid-level professionals switching to another career are facing the follow Catch-22: you want to land your dream job at a large corporation, but you need the experience just to make the cut for the interview. So how do you get the experience if you can’t even get into the door?
One solution is to apply for a similar job title at a startup. Startups can’t afford to compete with enterprise companies for talent, so they are more likely to accept prospective employees with less experience than their enterprise counterparts.
This was how I got started as an enterprise data scientist- I was a startup data scientist first, which increased my marketability and value to enterprises. But you know my story. I want to share another success story.
I’m currently visiting my son in NYC, and very proud he landed a job recently as a technical director for a large film production company. But his road to his enterprise job was a struggle. He started off by doing personal film projects since he was a teenager, and eventually won an award at his high school for best digital filmography student. He eventually made his move to NYC, the Mecca of film production, and enrolled at a digital film school to hone his craft.
However, he had a difficult time breaking into the film industry, and had to fall back on washing dishes, delivering food, cleaning his apartment building, and various other odd jobs. But he was always determined to break into the film industry, and eventually was able to procure a production assistant job with a startup film company. Here, he learned the film industry from the bottom, and he learned about the technical aspects of actual film production.
Before being employed at the startup, his personal film projects were the only skills in his wheelhouse. But the startup gave him the opportunity to gain much needed industry experience.
When a job opened up for a technical director position at an enterprise company, he applied confidently, knowing his startup gave him the experience (and references) to actually lead a technical film team. He got the job, mostly from the skills and experience he picked up from working at a startup.
So if you find yourself unemployable, consider applying for a similar job at a startup. The pay is not so great, but the experience and skills you develop at a startup fulfils the experience criteria that most enterprises seek out.
If you find yourself in a Catch-22, consider joining a startup!
If you're looking for support from me, here are a few options:
Enterprise Data Science Consultancy: With my consult team comprised of a Senior Data Scientist/ML Engineer, Senior Data Engineer, and Senior Cloud Engineer, we will help you architect and build your Enterprise Data Science platform, and transfer knowledge to your IT team to maintain and optimize it. If you don’t have an MLOps team, I will help you build one. Please get in touch about this consultancy here
Coaching and Mentorship: I offer coaching and mentorship; book a coaching session here