As a young person, often ones instinct is to think of jobs as requiring skills for functional roles. Youre an analyst, or consultant, or lawyer, or dentist, or salesperson. And youre looking for a job that gives you training to develop a skill and fill a role.
Its also natural to think if youre graduating from college, I dont have much to offer a company right now, because I dont have any skills or training.
Skills are valuable and necessary. But I speak to other CEOs of start-up companies about who theyre looking to hire and heres what they say: I dont care if the person has done this job before. If theyre smart theyll figure it out. Im just looking for someone competent who will roll up their sleeves and hustle and do whatever it takes to get things done with a good attitude. If that sounds like you, then someone wants to hire you. (Seriously, apply for a Venture for America Fellowship here.) The roles in start-ups are less cleanly defined, so the account manager may find him or herself selling, creating materials, researching prospects, buying furniture, and anything else that the company needs at a moments notice.
There are some people who just work harder than others. The stubborn will to get it done and run down loose balls is itself the skill that many start-up CEOs prize the most.
Just as recent graduates tend to overvalue skills, they often undervalue relationships. The truth is that most start-up jobs are filled that way the founder has a friend of a friend, etc. If youre a recent or soon-to-be graduate, its hard to build relationships early on because relationships are a two-way street, and theres generally a sense that others can do more for you than you can do for them (though youll be pleasantly surprised how many entrepreneurial types are open to advising or mentoring as long as you come across as smart, courteous, likeable, and sensitive to their time).
Uncovering good opportunities and capitalizing on them is often as much about building relationships as it is anything else. Someones going to have to like you or trust you. And then you have to overdeliver on every level as soon as you get an opportunity.
As youre getting started, the goal is to find someone, be it a manager or a founder or mentor, that you can support wholeheartedly and who likes to develop people. Ideally, youll find someone you admire doing something you believe in. Then do a consistently great job for him or her as a reliable, trustworthy, energetic high performer, and youll have one person looking out for you the rest of your career. If you help him or her succeed, so much the better.
This mindset is particularly true in the context of start-ups and small organizations. If youre working with 5 or 10 or 20 other people, its crucial that people actually like and trust each other in order for the organization to succeed. The environments are more intense and youll be forced to work closely together. You learn a lot about each other. As a natural result, the chances of developing relationships that will help you in the future are very high.