Startup Managers Tell Us What they Look for in New Hires

If you want to score a job at an awesome startup, a standard resume just will not cut it. Startups are looking for driven folks who are already immersed in their world. Someone who can come on board and start making moves fast. Someone who would fit in well with their small, tight-knit company culture.

How do you show them all of this in a 1-page piece of paper?

The answer: You need to highlight the qualities that startups care about most and do something extra, unique to standout. You need to think like a startup.  We spoke several startup hiring managers about what candidates have done in the past to truly standout.

Here are five invaluable nuggets of advice that you should seriously consider or pass along to a job seeking friend:

1. Get on Their Radar ASAP!

Take Brian Ballan, for instance, who scored a highly coveted internship at foursquare. You know the location-based social app—the one with over 20 million registered users to date. No big deal. How did he do it?

“Brian did a great job getting on my radar before he even started at foursquare by writing a great blog post about merchants and his thoughts on out space,” according to one of Ballan’s LinkedIn recommendations by his former foursquare employers.

So you see, writing about big ideas, solutions or insights specifically about your target company on a public social platform can get eyes on you faster than a simple resume.

2. Remember: Your Personality is a HUGE Asset

Many startups make it a point to include a little taste of their culture right in the job description. Pay attention to the startup culture—is it more relaxed? Do their Tweets appreciate a good joke or two?

“Even more so than at larger more established, one bad apple in a small group of people can throw off everything,” says Sultan Meghji, CEO of Reformation Medicine, which offers mobile and big data solutions for healthcare.

Incorporate your own personality and highlight how you’d fit in. Startup culture is very small with lots of hours spent with the same few people. They want to know you’re qualified and wouldn't mind being stuck in an airport during a flight delay with you.

3. Talk about Accomplishments You’ve Self-Started

Demonstrating a strong, genuine passion for the product or your job is huge for startup culture. It’s what fuels startups during turbulent times.

Startup hiring managers love people who “go home, and then start playing with technology on their own time because they want people who have initiated their own projects, products and solutions,” says Ben Diamond, VP of Information Technology Division at Windsor Resources. So, be sure to highlight a cool passion project you're working on.

4. Work on a Robust Skillset

Unlike larger corporations, where folks have enough colleagues to specialize in their skill, startups are a little less set-in-stone in the way day-to-day things are run. Managers at startups are thirsty for people with as many applicable skills as possible. With limited resources—how can you blame ‘em?

That’s why, “A talented candidate may be passed over in favor of an individual with a specifically desired skill,” says Phil Danne, hardware integration lead for Livio, a tech startup that was recently acquired by Ford Motor Co.

So, work on fleshing out your Skills Section!

5. Prove You've Seen Projects Through to the End

Startup managers need people who are not only passionate but also wholeheartedly reliable. Those who make the hiring decisions are wary of people who jump from project to project. This is their life’s work, and a huge milestone. They need team players who care enough to get things done.

“There is value on being able to rely on somebody to take on a new project and see it to the end,” says Shawn Tougas, cofounder of WealthPrep Inc, a startup that serves as an online resource of financial advice. “I would recommend having something tangible to show demonstrating you began something and saw it through to implementation.”

 

Another version of this article originally appeared on CareerBliss.com.