6 Months at a Startup (What I’ve Gained)
As I write this, I can hardly believe it’s true. It seems like only yesterday I was moving to California for a 6-month apprenticeship, and now it’s been 6 months and I feel like I’m just starting.
February 6th, 2019 marks my Praxis graduation date, and the six month mark at my current position with EquitySim.
Looking back, I never dreamed I’d have gained so much knowledge, advanced in so many skills (both hard and soft), made so many fun memories, or acquired such amazing co-workers and friends. The girl I was back in August didn’t know or understand that this kind of growth was possible for her in such a short amount of time.
Working at a startup has its challenges, but it’s crazy fun (most of the time). I think a lot of young people (including me six months ago) envision a job as settling into a routine you do every day, which might be true in some companies, but not at a startup. For this reason, I believe starting out your career working for a startup is one of the best things you can do for yourself and your career. I would even argue that it’s more valuable than any amount of time you would spend in a college classroom.
There’s no set curriculum – no predetermined right or wrong. This is such a different mindset than school! Getting it wrong in school consists of a failing grade, but failing on the job helps you grow and get better (if you let it).
There’s no way I can go back and tell you where I would be or what I would have gained if I had gone to college right away, so I won’t try. However, I CAN tell you what I’ve learned and where I am now due to my 6 months of working experience at a startup.
The list below merely consists of my highlights – the skills I’ve acquired that I’m most proud of. Honestly, not all of these were expected, but here they are, and I’m excited to continue developing them and discovering more areas of growth.
1 – Verbal Communication
I’ve always known I had trouble communicating my thoughts via the spoken word, but I didn’t really know how much I struggled sharing the ideas in my head until I had to start voicing my opinion in meetings, and during any given workday, on a consistent basis. Give me a chance to write it out, and it looks elegant and thought out. But when I would speak, my ideas didn’t seem as smooth. Now, I feel very confident in speaking my thoughts and ideas articulately and clearly, which feels amazing. I’m nowhere near perfection, but I’m excited to continue learning and growing in the months and years to come!
2 – Writing (Professional Emails & Marketing Copy)
Through this blog, I feel like my writing skills have improved significantly (specifically my ability to get my thoughts across in an elegant manner via the written word). Working in an environment where writing emails to customers and prospects happens on a daily basis forced me to learn the art of crafting an email that warrants a response and is clean and professional. My confidence in my abilities to write professional emails (even outside of work) has grown a lot in the past six months. I’ve also had the opportunity to proof read and write marketing materials, which has given me the chance to strengthen my marketing copy skills. This has been a very fun skill to develop as well, and I’m excited to take it further.
3 – Various Hard Skills
Yes, that title is vague. But you’re still reading this paragraph, so it must have hooked your interest somewhat 😉 I say “various” because there are just too many. Google Sheets/Excel, Google Slides/Powerpoint, writing, etc. But what I’ve really gained is an ability to latch on to a new tool, play around with it, and figure out how to utilize it to best solve my problems. It’s nice to have knowledge and knowhow in things like Excel, but the key to making that skill valuable is being able to use your understanding of that tool to create more efficiency or accuracy in your work.
4 – Confidence
If you were to listen to some of calls I had with prospects and customers when I first started out, and compare it to now, you’d be shocked. I’ve gained such a deeper understanding of how to understand, lead, and talk to prospects, and that brings me a new level of confidence I didn’t know existed. Not just in the world of work, but in every area of my life. I’ve always considered myself confident, but now I realize I wasn’t nearly as confident as I could be, and I know there’s still room to grow.
5 – Flexibility and Independence
I suspected that living on my own for the first time ever would bring me new challenges and a great experience, but I never would have guessed at the level of independence and flexibility I would gain! Over time, I gradually stopped freaking out every time a problem came up that I didn’t know how to fix, and started figuring out how to handle it. Granted, there are still times I get super overwhelmed and don’t know what to do, but hey, that’s life, and I’m working on bettering this fault every day.
I learned what it means to burn the candle at both ends, and how that’s necessary at certain points in one’s life to grow, learn, and see how hard you can push yourself. Turns out, when you’re striving for excellence, it’s pretty exhilarating 🙂
So, how was my experience, and would I recommend it?
I’ve learned, seen, experienced, and gained so much through this journey. It’s not always been easy, and there are days when I don’t know how I make it, but it’s worth it. This type of experience is something you can’t really compare to school. There’s a lot more trial and error, but that’s okay. It’s necessary for long-term growth, and in my opinion, an excellent way to launch your career.
Until next time,
Hope Frances
Build A Firm Foundation
