As a graduate, there is always a question of whether I should join a Start-up or a corporate giant. This decision is usually is not an easy one when kickstarting your career.
You are out of University and you have this career path laid out in your mind for the next 6-8 years. The common career path is described below in figure1.
Graduates who focus and follow the herd, usually reach the last stage of the plan, which is working in a progressive high growth company. This is the path most people have in mind after graduation.
Nevertheless, for candidates who are vetting on a start-up to start their career, this can be precarious. Especially if you are joining in a non-technical role, as they are subject to change in a start-up. As an early professional, you first need to evaluate yourself if your suitable for a fast-paced environment and less organised firm. You also need to think what your top priorities are before venturing into the start-up world.
For most of the start-up venturing graduates, at this stage it is going to be as follows:
- Career Progression
- Remuneration
- Work Culture
Whatever your priorities are, one needs to consider a few things before taking the big leap in career path.
Learning and growing on the job:
Many firms’ names do not even reach people given the plethora of companies that are in this global market. Irrespective of those difficulties, working for a start-up firm has become a figure of eminence. Most start-ups are usually small in size (i.e., Team) this allows the taking on of more responsibilities. Anyone in the starting stage of their career will be able to easily figure out their strong suites and attain multiple skillsets.
Start-ups are a great opportunity to grow and prove one’s potential to the firm. This opportunity arises due to the fact that there are small teams and roles are not concrete. One of the most important aspects to consider when joining a start-up is your relationship to the leadership team and/or CEO. ). In this situation, the scope, and the role that you are given should be considered secondary. Entrepreneurs are the ones who identify new problems and create innovative solutions to them. So, it becomes imminent that you are going to learn a lot while you are working along with your founder.
High Risk but a higher reward:
However, there are limitless possibilities for your ideas to come into fruition no matter how crazy they may sound to others. On the other hand, start-ups are fast-paced environments, and they align their business based on their new opportunities. As an employee the more of a contribution you make towards the company the faster you grow. This paves the way to attain a leadership position in the firm. Also, this gives you a sustainable leadership role even if you leave the start-up. This experience gives you the potential to create a large network for the rest of your career life. By joining a start-up, the cash you are going to be making will be considerably less than that of the corporate giant.
Although, working in a start-up could help amass personal wealth if your efforts bring commercial success for the product. The faster you grow, the faster you gain influence by working along with the founder. This gives you the option to obtain stocks even if they are less than a per cent. However, joining a start-up at the early stages will give you the advantage to accumulate additional stocks and enjoy the equity in the company.
Is a Start-up right for you?
If you are the kind of person who wants to jump into the unstructured, unorganised workplace with a quest to learn, enjoy, work hard, and reap career growth at the early stages. Then, you should dive into a career at a start-up. If you are a person who wants to gain the entrepreneurial spirit and at the same time work with young enthusiastic professionals then, you should join a start-up.
Find out how Ingenio can help kick-start your career & find the right opportunity in your field of interest.
Written by Srinivasan Nagarajan