When you’re starting off your career or you’re a few years in and you realise that you need a change, maybe its time to consider a startup.
Only a few years back, it was a multinational company or bust, at least for my parents. However, with the changing lifestyle of the millennials and their desire for flexibility at the workplace has made startups a viable and often preferred employer.
Beyond those simple and straightforward benefits, startups do offer some real benefits for employees.
Here’s why employees hate the commute
You actually have a voice
Let the little guy in the room speak everyone. People in large organisations often give a courtesy listen to the junior members of the team, but mostly just as a ceremonial tick in the box of inclusion. In a startup, everyone is a little guy or a big guy, because personnel in a start-up is limited, and your opinions are often incorporated in the decision-making process.
This gives you a great opportunity to showcase your creativity and vision.
Fast growth opportunities
How many 28 year old CTOs or CMOs do you see in the corporate world? Not that many to be honest, but it is actually more likely to see someone under 30 in a leadership position than not.
Working in a startup gives you a chance to find your place in the organization faster than in a large company with multiple layers of red tape. This gives you a chance to progress up the ladder and take a leadership role at a much earlier stage of your career. There is a downside that it is high risk, given that you may not have the experience compared to your peers in MNCs. However, it does give you a chance to reach your potential a lot faster.
Teaches you about hard work
Working in a startup often means you have multiple tasks on your plate at any given time so time management becomes a necessity. Such an intense work schedule is tiring but instils great problem-solving skills, time management processes and good practices all around.
Exposure to the whole business
Want to know what makes a business tick? Then joining a startup is a must for you.
When working in a startup you get to do multiple tasks or hold multiple job titles. I know someone with the unofficial job title of “Chief Do-Whatever-Has-To-Be-Done”, so safe to say you have a dynamic work experience.
What this does is help you develop awareness of what really goes behind the scenes. You get to work for or with different departments like operations, logistics, marketing, service and others, so you have a better appreciation of the inner workings of a company and you learn a lot more.
You learn responsibility
When you and you alone are responsible for something, then you have to make a decision about your priorities in life. This goes the same for business as well and in a startup, often you’re the one who has to make decisions for certain things.
These decisions have prominence, and you have equal accountability, as well as a corresponding amount of responsibility. You have to ensure that you don’t waste resources and manage your time well because chances are there won’t be anyone looking over your shoulder.
Employees want the opportunity to keep on learning