(Photo credit @matcfelipe)
March has certainly entered like a lion. And no pithy statement will ameliorate the fact that a sovereign European nation has been invaded by its neighbor & former colonizer, and its citizens are fighting for their right to stay independent. Sadly, Ukraine joins a too-long list of countries engaged in conflict and/or suffering the aftermath (Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, among too many others).
If the old adage is true, more peaceful times are coming at the end of this month…but like the weather, people are mercurial & do unexpected things. Thank you, as always, for being here. I send good wishes & hopes for the health & safety of your family & friends, wherever they may be. And now on to other thoughts related to tech & job searching.
#techsoundbite
I was listening to a bonus Pivot podcast episode this morning with guest speaker NYU professor Aswath Damodaran, and I was fascinated to hear someone else use the analogy of understanding company growth by comparing it to growing humans. I’ve also used this analogy in my coaching to help job seekers try to understand why a startup or tech company might have a very non-linear job application process. Those who are pivoting from other industries often expect job searches to progress along an organized & straight timeline. I shake my head & then start to describe this ‘growing humans’ analogy.
Essentially, you should look at the age of a company, and remember what it was like to be a human at that age. Just because a company has a well-known brand doesn’t mean that the company’s recruiting operations are all figured out (let alone other operational processes). Doordash was founded in 2013, so it’s 8 years old, in 3rd grade, and at the cusp of great academic growth. Airbnb was founded in 2008, so it’s 13 & going thru lots of major life changes. Google was founded in 1998, is now 23, and still not legal to drive a rental car.
I find this is a really helpful analogy for stressed-out job seekers for 3 reasons:
brand recognition is not a useful measure of how smooth a tech company’s recruiting operation will be;
the analogy often demonstrates clearly that ‘it’s not you, it’s them;’
it also shows what actual day-to-day work and career progression at the company will be like (always changing, not static, etc). If you are angered by the chaotic nature of the job search process, you may want to consider if you’ll be equally frustrated working in a role at a tech company.
I recommend this podcast episode as it was a great listen on how to think about the ‘life story’ of a company, both in terms of its financials and its position in the marketplace. Prof Damodaran also added another interesting twist for the arc of tech companies. He factors in dog years into a tech company’s timeline (thereby accelerating the demise of a software company) - whereas manufacturing companies are measured in regular years. He used GM and Yahoo as great examples of this. He also alluded to a certain company’s name change as a big signal that it’s on the decline. It’s an overall great framework to help you think about your long-term career options, direction, and stability at a specific company.
