People often come to me and ask about job opportunities at startups. Many of them are switching from non-startup jobs into the area. These people have trouble.
There are a few easy ways.
1. Be an established expert in a field the startup seeks to attack. You are the buyer at CVS and these guys make vitamins. You will teach them to get into retail. Not actionable really, if you are in job X already.
2. Be a skilled engineer. You could learn to code.
3. Be a former startup founder who shelved their project. Founders learn everything. Self taught. Here you must invest a lot of time and your failed effort has to have some merit.
4. Volunteer at a startup. So overlooked! Go to a cool startup’s CEO and say: “give me a project. I will kill it for free.” Main cost of course is you need to be working for free for a while. It adds startups to your profile and the gig itself can become a job.
The formula. QED.
Things that dont work
– emailing your resume on the hopes that smart people are needed
– getting out to meetups and stuff
– meeting VCs as if they run the universe