Guide: Getting A Startup Job in Boston

With The Boston Startup School Expose today and friends that are recent graduates asking about employment any advice on how best to navigate the Boston tech job market would be really appreciated by them. So I outlined a process that worked for me after being suggested to it by local entrepreneurs and hiring managers.

*Note: The guide applies best to finding jobs at tech startups in Boston but the principles can be applied in almost any industry.

1. Go where the money is.

It’s incredibly important to target a company you’ll love and are passionate about. It’s also incredibly difficult to segment the hundreds of companies in Boston that you’d love and are passionate about. A quick and easy way to do that is to figure out the ones most likely to be able to pay you.

A. Look at popular accelerators like Techstars and the Finalists of Mass Challenge in the past two years. Pick your favorites and then research them on Google and Crunchbase. You’ll be able to find recent funding announcements and important company news. If they are just coming off a successful seed or A round chances are they have some resources to grow.

B. Look at Dogpatch Labs, T3 Advisors, Bostinno, Boston.com and Boston Business Journal. Companies that just moved out of Dogpatch likely did so because they were getting too large. T3 Advisors will always post about new clients they found office space for which is a great indication they are setting down roots. Bostinno, Boston.com and BBJ will give you insights on the tech climate that give you a sense of where the hiring trends are going.

2. Don’t Network. Appreciate.

Pick 2-5 target companies and understand what they have in common that you find attractive. Then research their blog, search them on Google (notice you did this at least twice already) and on Linkedin. Find out what events they are attending and go there. Don’t say “Hey, I need a job.” Say “Hey, I really liked that piece about you in Innovation Economy. Can you tell me more about...”

People respect the questions you ask a lot more than the answers you give. (Don’t worry that’ll change when you actually get the gig)

3. Optimize your Internet Presence

If you’re not on Twitter, get on it. Clean up your Facebook privacy settings so employer’s won’t see your kegstand profile picture. Start a blog AND optimize your Linkedin.

Make sure your Linkedin Profile is completed with details of contributions you’ve made to earlier organizations, a specific type of company you're looking to join, skills that you are actually confident in and recommendations.

Most startups don’t care much about the paper resume you had formatted at your University’s career center. They care about how you communicate and demonstrate yourself to the world.

4. Seal the Deal

Go above and beyond. Find a need they have and an area to contribute. Then contribute without any expectations. Maybe you develop an SEO strategy for them, rework their home page design to increase conversion or create an application that pulls data from their API.

Just do something valuable and send it to them.

When they respond ask for coffee.

Then make the ask.

5. The Ask.

When you’re joining a startup you’re not asking any one person. You’re asking an entire team that is just as worried about you not succeeding as you are. Any dead weight in an early company could mean disaster.

Keep that in mind.

Connect with these people on a natural, professional and personal level. Make sure they understand your goals, shortcomings and desires to learn. No one is expecting you to be perfect, but they are expecting you to be genuine.

If you’ve done the research and seriously invested the energy into a company and they reject you that sucks. But that either means one of you chose wrong or the resources simply weren’t there.

Anything you would do different in the Boston job search process? Let us know in the comments!