Startup or Corporate Job?

When you graduate from school, should you go work for a startup?  Or, should you go work for a corporation?  It’s an interesting question with no right answer.  If you want to be successful, there is no easy path.

One of the benefits Silicon Valley brings is the access to people that have been down the startup path.  They are harder to find in other areas of the country.  It’s important that people who have run that race share their stories, and share what was going through their minds at the earliest stages-if they can put themselves in those shoes again.

Doing a startup is hard.  It can be demanding physically because you tend to work a lot of hours.  But, it’s really taxing mentally.  You get told “No” a lot.  Your resources are always constrained and trying to get stuff done can be totally frustrating.  Taking an idea from concept to a product that people actually pay for is just difficult.  If it were easy, everyone would do it.

Working for a corporation can be hard too.  Bureaucracy.  Stuff flows down hill.  Endless meetings.  Having to adapt your personality to fit with the culture.  Hours can be long.  Most of the time, your performance is judged by someone inside the company that is higher up than you.  You don’t eat what you kill and others will try and take credit if you are successful.

When I was talking to students at Illinois last week, a lot of them were struggling with this question.  Many of them are very interested in startups.  But, for a lot of reasons they aren’t totally comfortable with them.

For some, it’s their family.  Especially if you are a first generation that attended college.  How do you get a degree and then tell your parents you are working for some crazy dot com?  Shouldn’t you have a respectable occupation?

For others it’s debt.  They borrowed money to go to school and they have bills to pay.  They don’t feel like they can take the risk of a startup.  What happens if the startup fails?  Will the startup be able to pay me enough to cover my living expenses and debt?

Still others worry that they don’t have an idea.  Not having a startup idea is fine.  Become a joiner.  Go work for a company that is interesting to you.  People that are joiners can be highly successful in startup land.

My observation is that many occupations that seem corporate post grad are really entrepreneurial.  If you are going to be a wealth manager, the odds of success are probably about the same as in startup land.  Insurance, same thing.

Consulting is a bit different.  It all depends on the firm’s culture.  The grind of consulting can sap your energy.  But, the mental gymnastics and network can be a nice base to build something entrepreneurial off of in the future.

Sales is also different.  When you sell, you have a little autonomy and you get exposure to all kinds of people.  That exposes you to ideas and different businesses.  If you are entrepreneurial in your thinking, it causes you to question, explore and imagine.

But, knowing how to sell is one of the most important things you can have when you are doing a startup.  Not only do you have to sell to customers, but you have to sell people on your idea.  You have to persuade them to quit their secure jobs and join you.

There are no easy answers when you are starting to choose a career path.  But, the cool thing is that you are young enough so you even if you make a mistake, you can recover.  Any choice is not fatal.  The best thing you can do is talk to people and learn from their experience.  Start to imagine yourself taking a similar path and see how it feels inside you.

When you make your decision, don’t look back.  Be all in.  Just do it.