Rocky startup ecosystem creating tremors for your career plans?
Read on for my steer on how to navigate career moves during tricky terrain
If you've worked in consumer startups or scale-ups, within the last decade, I bet you didn’t “apply” for most of the jobs you’ve had - at least not until 2023 (maybe except for your very first gig).
The next exciting leap in your career just… kinda landed in your lap, without massive effort on your part. Referrals from friends and former colleagues were the norm, or you’d have executives charming you with InMails saying you were “specifically on their wish list of rockstars they’d like to hire!”
That’s how it can be when an industry booms. Simply being there can be a cheat code, offering tons of new opportunities. But times are different from the height of VC-backed consumer startups. The days of accelerated pathways to senior leadership and picking between three exciting opportunities that you were tapped up for - all offering increases in comp ofc - are largely behind us.
This is not excellent for the ego… I definitely gorged myself on the gratification that came with regularly being tapped up out of the blue in the before times! But this new paradigm presents an opportunity to be newly intentional in taking agency over our future career moves.
In a more scarce job market, it’s tempting to jump into the first viable opportunity, particularly if you’re between jobs. To avoid jumping out of the frying pan into the fire, I urge you to consider the following:
Think two steps ahead
Deeply consider not just what your next role offers immediately, but how it could position you for future opportunities.
Can you clearly envision a plausible and appealing future move based on the role you’re pondering? Think about what skills or experiences you’ll gain from this new job that will make you more appealing for the move after that.
Senior job titles: a double-edged sword
Be vigilant when stepping up to middle-management or executive job titles.
Startup land has created an abundance of directors/vps which was great when the industry was growing exponentially. But growth has tailed off and no employer has more than one Director of Social or VP of People.
Many scaleups are flattening their organizational structure, making these roles more scarce. This sadly means more folks at these levels may spend more time “on the bench” before their next call up. While your continuity of employment might suffer, your comp when you are employed should swell. So, if you’re impatient to step up, do so with eyes wide open (and ideally with a secondary income).
Industry matters
Betting on a niche or emerging industry is all good, but companies recruiting now are prioritizing risk mitigation. Their main tactic for this is hiring like-for-like. If your last role wasn’t in the same industry, category, and seniority as the role a company is recruiting, that all represents risk. Not a sexy way to recruit, I know. This also makes sideways moves more typical right now.
But be careful not to let that incentivize you to stumble into an untested industry that doesn’t transfer easily to others that are more stable - unless you’re truly convinced about the specific company’s prospects.
Don’t end up in career solitary confinement by leaping into a role at an AI startup as that bubble looks set to burst. The VC-backed consumer goods startup bubble specifically may have already burst, but folks still buy goods from new companies offering superior value or experiences. They did before VC’s swooped in, they do today, and they will tomorrow.
If you’re chasing the trends, make sure the company offering you a job has solid prospects!
Company stage matters
With fewer early stage ventures securing funding, consolidating as the “early stage guru” full-time could be a riskier play rn.
Working full-time for bigger and more established scaleups might mean that, if the time to make a move does come, your profile will better match another similar stage company. Be extra vigilant when committing to a particularly early stage startup full-time - for the time being, maybe consult for ventures like that if that’s an itch you need to scratch.
In summary, many of us have ridden the highs of launching our careers in abundant times. If we were child actors rather than consumer startup pros, we’d be like Macaulay Culkin, flying out of the blocks after starring in Home Alone!
But like actors, our careers have above-average jeopardy baked in, and it pays to prioritize planning a little more, and relying on vibes a little less (just a little). That’s not a muscle many of us have needed to flex before, but if we wanna start making mid-career money moves like Kieran Culkin has been lately, it’s time to start.
BU Community Wins
In July, we hosted the latest in our series of BU Sessions events at Spring Place in Tribeca featuring Alex Fine and Lauren Bille in conversation. BU Sessions events are exclusively available to BU members, and they’re always good vibes, intimate, and a space for vulnerability. 💚
We have two BU Sessions coming up this September. We’ll feature a fireside chat between Crown Affair founder + ceo Dianna Cohen and The Renatural founder Aasiyah Abdulsalam in Brooklyn. In LA, we’ll host Neha Gandhi and Alexa Hampton in conversation in West Hollywood. If you’re interested in experiences like these and other features of BU membership drop us a line at hello@blackunicorn.com 👋
Big love to Maggie Gibson who announced that she's joined Digital Trends Media Group as Senior Director, Commerce Partnerships. Exciting times ahead! ⚡
Shoutout to Emily Heintz whose startup Sèchey has partnered with InvestBev and joined the ranks of Cann, JuneShine and Siempre in their portfolio. Huge congratulations! 🚀
Jobs
There are over 500 live job postings in the BU Job Board, all pulled in from across the consumer startup and scale up world. We aim to update this weekly by Wednesdays so bookmark the link, set a reminder to make it your first stop for discovering job postings that are out there, and pay it forward by sharing the link with people you know who are actively looking or are curious.
Reach out via hello@blackunicorn.com especially if you’re interested in applying for any of our Featured Job posts, or if you would like to learn more about posting a Featured Job your company is recruiting for. Some new additions to the job board this week include:
CX Manager at Pepper 🤍
Head of Sales at Ghia 🍊🫧
Junior Copywriter at Moon Juice 👅🟩🥤
Catch you next time!
Cheers,
JT