When it comes to the stories of how our Fellows chose VFA, no two are the same. We wanted to check in with our upcoming class of 2015 Fellows and hear why they made the move to go VFA.  
Devon is a proud Boston College Eagle, finishing up her final semester as an English major with a minor in Management and Leadership. While on the Heights, she has worked as a board member and editor for the college’s student newspaper, mentored freshmen in a student leadership program and as an Orientation Leader, and practiced her ever-improving Spanish skills. A foodie hailing from Philadelphia, Devon enjoys the pursuit of the magis, binge-reading, and road trips. We’re stoked Devon chose VFA and she can’t wait to tell you why.
Interested in joining Devon and her fellow trailblazers in VFA’s Class of 2015? Our next and final application deadline is March 2nd. Visit apply.ventureforamerica.org for more information on becoming a VFA Fellow.

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Name: Devon Sanford
College or University: Boston College
Major: English
Hometown: Westmont, NJ
Fellow Class: 2015
This past summer, I sat at a desk in midtown New York, staring at my computer screen. I had spent the better part of my morning shuffling between my internship’s supply room and office. By the afternoon, I swiveled in my chair, an uneasy feeling in my gut. I was bored. I felt drained, and I had hardly been productive. The routine of my internship, slowly dragging on, got me thinking. I wondered, what impact am I having? Who am I benefiting? The answer, I realized, was that I was not having much of an impact at all – and those who I was benefiting were perhaps not the people who needed help most.
This summer’s internship was a massive reality check for me. While I learned a great deal about the consulting sector in which I was working, I was hardly excited to head down to midtown each morning. And I was well aware that the work, or something like it, could become my full-time job after graduation. So I started reconsidering. I decided that my work post-graduation should be as challenging and meaningful – if not more – than my experiences in college.
For the past four years at Boston College, I have had the incredible, gratifying privilege of doing what I love. As an English major, I have spent hours in a cavern of modern-American novels and evenings racing against a newspaper deadline. I have worked with campus groups as a mentor for freshmen and traveled abroad in an international immersion program. I have been encouraged by professors, sat through heated debates, and spent late nights with empowering peers. I have learned through that love. And I have figured out, along the way, that my passion and investment in work garner results.
As a student of a Jesuit college and a volunteer in downtown Boston, I have also learned the momentous importance of working for others. I understand that my college education is a privilege many are not lucky enough to receive – and is one that I can use for good, for the benefit of those in my community.
So as I returned back to campus this fall, I decided to get back to what I love. I knew I had a knack for making gears turn and I wanted to find work that moved just as quickly as those late nights in the newspaper office. The relationships I had built with mentees, the results I helped create for on-campus dialogues – I was interested in creating similarly tangible results in my job. And I wanted to work that hard, and to have the same effect on a social project. Venture for America allows me the opportunity, and the challenge, to do just that. I will be working with a team of intelligent, fast-moving individuals who are committed to impacting a community. VFA’s training program will teach me the ins-and-outs of creating a company. And the two-year fellowship will set me up with a new program to love, a different passion to follow.
 
 

In case you haven’t heard, we kind of love our jobs here at VFA HQ. We get to hang out with our incredible Fellows, identify the next generation of entrepreneurs, find founders and teams who are building something great, and proudly shout from the rooftops about our work in some of the coolest cities across the country. But the best thing about being part of Team VFA has to be spending every day with the talented, hard-working, epicly hilarious crew that makes the program happen. 

Want to see for yourself? You’ll get the chance to meet the whole team, but we’re kicking it off this week with with Laila Selim, our dog- and VFA-obsessed Community Growth Manager who has more energy on her worst day than most of us have after three venti coffees, a red bull, and a good night’s sleep. (Oh, and did we mention Laila and her team are hiring? Visit www.ventureforamerica.org/careers for more information on joining our growing team!) 

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Name: Laila Selim
Position at VFA: Community Growth Manager
Department Name: Community Growth
College or University: Tufts University
Job before VFA: Paralegal (Editor’s note: we still have trouble picturing this one…)

What does your team do and why is it awesome?

As our name implies – we grow our community! We’re tasked with finding future Fellows and educating them about VFA, walking them through the application process, and helping them transition into the Fellowship. We canvass the country recruiting Fellows, building relationships with great schools and organizations, and telling the world who we are and why we exist. Part of the awesomeness  of our department is the people; you’d be hard pressed to find a more passionate, witty or dedicated bunch anywhere else. But the other part of the awesomeness comes from being the engine of VFA (or at least, without knowing a lot about engines, a big piece of the engine); it’s incredible to be a driving force of an organization that changes people’s lives.

What do YOU do?

I help people learn about VFA! I get to talk to incredibly smart, talented people all over the country, and help them decide if they’re up for the challenge of becoming a VFA Fellow. I recruit Fellows and forge relationships with Colleges, Universities and organizations across the country that are as passionate about entrepreneurship as we are.

How did you come to work at VFA?

• Step 1: Move to Cairo 5 days before the Egyptian Revolution to start a concert promotions company with my best friend.
• Step 2: Accept failure and return to the US to find a “real” job.
• Step 3: Realize, 3 weeks in, that becoming a lawyer would be masochistic. I miss building things.
• Step 4: Start the soul searching and the job hunt. Reach out to friends and family.
• Step 5: Remember VFA from an article I read in 2012. See that a friend from college worked there – and that my sister had been a volunteer for VFA at one point.
• Step 6: Interview. Fall in love.
• Step 7: Get hired. Buy a ticket for Vegas to join a team trip my second week of work.
• Step 8: Don’t get fired in Vegas 🙂

What’s your typical day like?

It’s tough to lay out a typical day – I know it’s cliché, but one of the best parts of my job is that there is no typical day. Key elements, however, are: coffee in the office; checking emails in the morning, afternoon, and evening; planning recruitment events; digging into recruitment data; creating spectacular content; and talking to Fellows and candidates alike (That is, when I’m not on the road). A day never goes by that I don’t get to talk to someone more brilliant than I.

One part of your job you wouldn’t know from your resume:

Hangin’ with the Fellows! We have the pleasure of teaming up with Fellows who want to go back to their alma mater and spread the word about VFA.

One thing you do every day that you probably couldn’t do at another job:

Sit on a couch and talk to people about things I love. My *technical* desk is rarely used (embarrasingly so..) since I spend most of my time on a couch or at a standing desk.

What you’re known for at the office:

My teammates like to parody me by running around saying, “It’s gonna be GREAT”. And, you know what? IT IS.

Favorite part about working on Team VFA:

So cliché…but the people. So smart, so dedicated, so funny.

One reason your friends get jealous about your job:

The fact that, although I’m not a morning person, I’m happy on the walk to work because I know my job matters.

Favorite VFA tradition:

Fireball at all occasions.

Favorite Training Camp memory:

Being added to the Fellows’ GroupMe on the last night of Training Camp – and then finding out (in some funny ways…), months later, that they had forgotten they added me. 🙂

Best tip or life hack for increasing productivity during the work day:

Make a list of to do’s the night before; that way, you can dive right in when you get to work.

What newspapers, websites, or blogs do you kick off your day with?

The New York Times, Quartz, The Skimm, and Slate.

What are you reading and/or watching right now?

I’m reading Americanah by Chimamanda Adichie, and also a Mary Higgins Clark mystery.

About the Author: Melanie Friedrichs

College or University: Brown University
Fellow Class: 2012
VFA City: Providence
VFA Company: Andera
Where are you now? Masters program at the London School of Economics

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When I started my job as a Marketing Coordinator at Andera, I didn’t know what to expect. My aggressively liberal arts university didn’t offer any marketing courses, or even a proper business major. Working off of “Mad Men” and an article I had read about how Target used customer data to send targeted promotions (no pun intended), I gathered that I would spend half of my time conceiving brilliant advertising campaigns in banter-filled brainstorming sessions, and the other half whipping oodles of raw data into valuable, actionable insights. Surprise! I was not right.
The first thing I learned was that when you’re doing marketing for a startup, you spend most of your time on production, not strategy. That means pulling Salesforce reports and manually matching them to other reports in Excel because you haven’t yet figured out how to automate the process. Editing videos with cheap software you downloaded for free and adding them to your CMS, one by one. Learning how to change the background color of your HTML newsletter and scratching your head when deliverability dips to 85%. Bullying reluctant webmasters into telling you the real cost-per-click of the banner ad in the upper right hand corner, and rejiggering your budget to see if you can afford the spot. If you’re lucky, you can make enough time to look critically at your data or think creatively about your next campaign once a week, but usually you’ll cancel that meeting because you’re trying to make a deadline. Your greatest challenge will be figuring out how to do the boring things as efficiently as possible.
The second thing I learned is that there is no such thing as brilliance. Marketing at a startup is all about conversion, be it from your online advertisement to your website, from your website to your shopping cart, or from your email to your landing page. All marketers agonize over subject lines, images, and templates, trying to guess what will get the consumer to click, and some marketers are better at guessing than others. But no one is better than an A/B test. I’ve seen “A” copy I spent four hours on lose miserably to “B” copy I dashed off last minute, and blog posts that I thought were awful perform twice as well as my favorites. Even your data is often unreliable, because, unless you’re relatively far along, you probably don’t have enough of it to make valid conclusions, and planning your future using data collected from your past might prevent you from seeing (or stumbling upon) new opportunities. Your time will always be better spent creating three versions than nursing your tortured genius with a Don Draper triple whiskey.
In sum: Move fast. Try things. Repeat until it works.

Mike Tarullo is SVP of Corporate Development at Venture for America. Mike has ran and managed nearly every department at VFA and most recently has focused his efforts on helping Fellows build companies via our seed fund, the VFA Accelerator and Innovation Fund. 
Read on for his advice on how to effectively manage up and follow his thoughts on jobs, learning and startups on his blog “Outside the Echo Chamber“. 

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I learned a lot during my first startup gig. I was at a labor marketplace, initially as our first account manager, and then over time as the guy leading marketing, biz dev, and then sales. It sounds excellent – getting to wear a bunch of hats, lead different departments. And it was, from a learning and skill building perspective.
But, it was often a mess. My bosses (CEO and COO) were super busy, and didn’t really have enough time to sit down with me and hash out plans. Worse, when I did get something from one person in particular, it tended to involve lots of micromanagement and not a lot of prioritization. I figured I deserved to have a path for growth articulated, clear goals in place, and someone helping me figure out what to DO every day, week, or even month. Despite the mountain of work we all faced, sometimes I’d spend hours trying to figure out what I should be working on.
I was feeling lost – I’d been told to set sail, but not in what direction. I learned a ton – I still looked back at my old self every few months and couldn’t believe how much I’d grown. But I was watching my friends at structured organizations receive structured opportunity and measured progress. I was sitting there waiting to receive that (or, more accurately, having late-night bitching sessions with my colleagues at the bar next door). We had an external locus of control.
And, as usual, I was wrong – there was more I could do. I hadn’t learned what it meant to manage up.
On its own, the phrase “manage up” is corporate-speak, and advising someone to manage up is about as helpful as asking an angry person to calm down. Current articles on the subject fall somewhere between generic and crazy generic. I want to make sure you don’t repeat my mistakes, and can figure out what tactical things you can do to have a relationship with your boss that’s supportive and complimentary instead of adversarial or resentful. Managing up isn’t telling your boss what to do. Nor is it something that you do time to time. If you’re good at it, you’re always managing up.
Managing people is really hard. To me, managing up is really just lending your manager a hand with you:

Give them a menu

Designers are often aces at this – they’ll give you three versions of something. That’s a little intense for most of your day-to-day work, but whenever you’re developing something that’s going to require strategic and/or creative decision making, present two or more options.

Set and share your priorities

That’s your boss’s job. Maybe it’s their most important job. Yet, most managers don’t spend enough time helping their employees select and order their priorities (especially in ambiguous environments). If you determine what three or four key things you can accomplish in a given period of time (say, a week), draft that list, and share it with your boss to solicit their input. You can save them the trouble of figuring out what to do with you, and they’ll develop confidence that you can manage yourself.

Stow the big ideas

Do something yourself at least a couple times before trying to figure out how to improve it. There are probably some variables you haven’t considered until you get hands-on experience. Veteran input is respected for a reason – they have experience to inform their decisions.

Test your own process improvements

Big, meaningful changes often start out with lean tests. When you DO think of an idea to make something better, come up with the simplest possible test you can use to see if you might be right.

Check in more than absolutely necessary

It feels great to be wanted!
There’s a common thread here, and it’s a little counter-intuitive: checking in builds autonomy. If I ask someone to build a house, I don’t want them to say “sure!” and then drive over months later to find out what my house looks like. I want to chat for a few minutes to make sure we’re on the same page, see blueprints, and be consulted on important decisions. I want to know how much progress is going to be made each week. Not only will you make sure you’re building the house your boss wants, but they’ll grow closer to you and feel more trust in your work. You’ll learn their preferences, and maybe get some insight into their strategic process yourself!
If you’re really good at this, soon your manager will barely even worry about what you send over – they’ll simply trust your judgment, and still feel in the loop. They’ll forgive mistakes, too. And in time, especially if they’re a typical startup manager like me who never plans more than a week or two ahead, they’ll let you create your own path for growth.

Read any interview tips article, and it’ll tell you that preparation is key to nailing a job interview. I couldn’t agree more. Most people focus on being able to effectively answer questions in an interview, but crafting smart questions to ask is essential. When someone asks me an easily google-able question like, “How many Fellows are there,” I can’t help but think: “Next, please!” A thoughtful, pointed question, however– one that reveals background knowledge and critical thinking– now that’s what I’m talking about! Ask me question I haven’t been asked a dozen times before, and I will remember. Guaranteed.
So, what kinds of questions will impress an interviewer at a startup? Let’s take a moment to contrast the following questions, from the perspective of an employer.

1. To show that you’re thinking about the broader industry…

What you would ask:

Which competitors are you most worried about and why?

What you should ask:

I know a lot of people are saying that [something insightful about the future of the industry]. I just read Fred Wilson’s post related to that, too. Do you think that [this company] fits into that vision? What do we need to get there?

Why the “should” is better:

Let’s be real: anyone who has accidentally stumbled into any business 101 course could ask the first question. You might as well say, “I didn’t take the time to research it, so why don’t you tell me…” What you’re trying to communicate here is that you’re aware of the industry landscape, right? So do that! It’s okay to have your entree into the question include a quick assertion of your knowledge. Mention a blog or article you read, propose a pithy hypothesis, or state an informed opinion and ask your interviewer to respond.
The benefit is twofold: first, savvy interviewers (like me!) know that past behavior is predictive of future success, so seeing that you are the kind of person who prepares and has a demonstrated interest in their space will do wonders to shape my positive impression of you. Second, a question like this opens up a dialogue. Startups draw a lot of passionate people, so chances are that your interviewer is really, truly excited about what’s happening in his/her corner of the entrepreneurial universe. By tapping into this passion, you enthrall your interviewer. Turn the stiff game of Q&A ping-pong into a genuine conversation and you’ve transformed from “potential employee” to “desired coworker” just like that.

2. To indicate that you’re forward-thinking…

What you would ask:

What are some of the biggest changes you see on the horizon?

What you should ask:

What’s the team’s next big milestone or goal, and how would you see that affecting my role as [job function]?

Why the “should” is better:

While broad, open-ended questions may get your philosophy professor fired up or inspire lively conversations around the dinner table, they’re really not ideal in an interview setting. The specificity of the ‘should’ version of this question paints you as being more thoughtful. Your interviewer will think of you as practical and thoughtful because you’re already anticipating how the climate of the company will shape your experience and performance. Further, by phrasing your question in terms of a ‘milestone’ or ‘goal’ instead of the more neutral ‘change,’ you’re suggesting that you care about the company’s progress and success– and that you want to be a part of it.

3. To indicate that you’re attuned to team culture…

What you would ask:

How would you describe work/life balance here?

What you should ask:

From reading everyone’s bios on the site, it looks like you all have pretty awesome senses of humor. What are some other things about the team that make [Company X] a great place to work?

Why the “should” is better:

The first question is fairly cookie cutter and self-centered. At worst, your interviewer will assume you’re not a particularly hard worker and that you’re trying to figure out if you’re still going to have time to devote to weekday Netflix binging. At best, you’ve just asked a bland question that’s not much fun for your interviewer to answer (“Oh, you know… We work hard. We love what we do though, so it’s not bad…” [Shifts in seat]).
Ask me about my funny, awesome coworkers instead? Yes, please! You’re no longer the egocentric slacker. Now, you’ve brightened my day, reminding me of all sorts of workplace shenanigans and making me feel all warm inside (“I’m so glad you asked! Yes, they’re a riot. There was this one time…”). Let me ramble about our ridiculous Secret Santa exchange or how brilliant my colleague is, and we’re sharing a moment instead of blundering through an interview.

4. To demonstrate an interest in your interviewer…

What you would ask:

What are the biggest challenges you are facing in your job right now?

What you should ask:

If I were to take on this role and do a really great job, what would that free you up to do?

Why the “should” is better:

If you ask me the first question, I’m automatically inundated with thoughts about what’s not going great. This is not the sort of tangent you want your interviewer going on. I’ll end up all disgruntled and red-faced, eager to get back to my desk and the million things I have to do– thanks for reminding me. Instead, the ‘should’ version of the question flips it from negative to positive. This revised question is brilliant in its simplicity. In just one sentence, you’ve got me simultaneously picturing you crushing it in the position you want and imagining myself with more bandwidth to pursue my career goals. You’ve communicated your desire to contribute to the team without making yourself the focus of the question, and you’ve asked me to talk about my favorite topic: me. Bravo!

So…

Given these points, it’s clear: if you’re asking a question just because you’re curious about the answer, you’re missing a chance to be strategic and to impress. Remember that the best questions are specific. Superior interview questions demonstrate passion, interest, critical thought, and background knowledge. You can’t google the answers to them. They build rapport with your interviewer; they help him or her to imagine you as a colleague in that role. Pose the right questions, and you’ll walk out of the interview with only one thing left to ask: “When is my offer going to come through?”

This week, the Wall St. Journal published an article that shines a much-needed spotlight on a major problem our country faces: entrepreneurship in the U.S. is on the decline, and has been for decades– particularly among young people.

“Endangered Species: Young U.S. Entrepreneurs” points out that even though there’s a widely held notion that 20-somethings in our country are a generation of “entrepreneurial risk-takers,” the data tells a different story.

>>Check out the full article here

 

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According to WSJ research, it turns out the number of people under the age of 30 who own a business is at a 24-year-low, and the proportion of startups to all businesses has been nearly cut in half between 1978 and 2011. So why the decline? The author points to a lack of relevant experience, increasing financial hurdles, and fear of failure as the primary factors contributing to the decline of young entrepreneurs.
At VFA, we’ll continue minimizing these obstacles for our Fellows by giving them the tools and resources they need to build something of their own. They’re already off to the races, with five Fellow-founded companies from our first class of 39 Fellows– but that’s just the beginning. We know many other VFAers will start their own businesses– just like Banza, Castle, TernPro, and ZestTea— in the years to come.
You can check out the complete article here. It’s a good reminder that even though we’re Snapchatting our friends from Saturday night Uber rides, the prevalence of the young entrepreneur is not the norm. Let’s get our young people building again!

2015 is here! Whether you’re in school or have already ventured into the working world, you’re probably trying to get back into the swing of things (Projects, presentations, reports…oh my!) all while trying to sticking to those New Year’s resolutionsthat sounded like such a great idea on December 31st. Either way, you’re under enough stress as it is, and the last thing you want is some disembodied blog to tell you what to do right now.
Wait! Before you start reading this in the voice of your out-of-touch great aunt– the one who always gives advice like, “You look em in the eye and ya say, ‘When do I start?’ That’ll get you hired right quick,” consider this: We’re experts on how to get a startup job and thrive once you’re there.

As an organization, VFA has:

• Poured through thousands of applications
• Conducted hundreds of interviews
• Built relationships with some of the coolest startups you’ve never heard of from Providence to Miami to San Antonio (and tons of places in between)

Our expertise doesn’t end at the “you’re hired!” handshake– we have bird’s eye view of hundreds of Fellows’ experiences on the ground. That perspective, combined with ongoing dialogue with their employers, provides us real, unique insight into the skills, mindsets, and actions that make young professionals happy, successful startup warriors.
And me? I sit at the helm of all things ‘talent’ at VFA, running fellowship admissions and spearheading much of VFA’s internal hiring. In my time here, I’ve had thousands of interactions with potential hires and have seen the merits and downfalls of various approaches. I’m still wondering how I got lucky enough to land this gig. I mean, who else gets the privilege of interacting with so many badass future entrepreneurs and generally awesome humans!? Not one to hoard the wealth, l’ll be regularly sharing what I’ve learned.
Stay tuned to get the most practical, actionable advice out there on how to land (and kick ass at!) a job at a growth-stage organization as a recent grad.
– Lauren Gill, VFA Talent Guru

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>>CHECK OUT LAUREN’S FIRST POST HERE: Questionable Questions: Avoid without question.