Posts tagged jobs

Posted 3 months ago

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Is HBS becoming a tech feeder school? I hope so.

I graduated from Harvard Business School in the nuclear winter of job seeking: spring of 2009. I remember quite a few of my classmates thinking they were going to “career transition” into private equity out of consulting or I-Banking being sorely disappointed. We hit a record low for job acceptance, and many of those who accepted were returning to prior employers. Interestingly, a large number of great startups (Rent The Runway, thredUP, VigLink, Cloudflare, etc.) came out of my class, perhaps a slight consequence of the dim traditional job prospects.

I usually follow HBS MBA job stats as something of a curiosity to see how much things have improved since I was there. The school recently released the most recent data for the Classes of 2012 and 2013, and what it shows is a surprising shift towards supplying labor into the tech market:

  • More engineers: 36% of undergrad degrees hold by the Class of 2013 were STEM vs. 33% in 2012.
  • More job seekers: 88% of grads were looking for jobs in 2013 vs. 74% in 2012. 
  • More technology seekers: 19% of 2013 summer internships in technology vs. 12% of 2012 full-time jobs.
  • More Silicon Valley: 15% of 2013 summer internships in Bay Area vs. 12% of 2012 full-time jobs.

Overall, 6% of the Classes of 2012 and 2013 accepted full- or part-time jobs at startups last year. That’s slightly down over the prior year’s statistic of 7%. So while HBS seems to be gaining a tech focus, startups remain roughly flat as a percentage. 

To me, these are good signs. Often the best role out of an MBA isn’t to join something small, but to join something a bit larger with some structure in place. I suspect that’s what is going on, but if you tracked these cohorts of students for 5-7 years, I bet you’d find a high percentage of them in startups. Happy to see HBS growing its influence here.

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Posted 9 months ago

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Rebuilding my RSS feed

A little over 4 years ago (sometime during business school), my good friend Rylan Hamilton told me to set up an RSS feed to follow a few sectors that I was interested in for job opportunities. This piece of advice became my #1 tactical recommendation in the years that followed for all job applicants. (You’d be surprised how many people don’t know that reading every day about your sector makes you a more qualified applicant. Go figure.)

Lately though, my RSS has become bloated and inefficient, so I spent a few hours over the weekend rebuilding it. A few folks have asked me what I follow, so here’s the list in completeness.

NOTE: I’ve hyperlinked a few of my less well-known favorites that you all should check out. If you have some non-redundant additions to the below, please leave them in the comment section. Thanks!

Tech & Internet

Product & Design

Marketing

Robots & The Future

  • KurzweilAI
  • MAKE Magazine
  • MIT News - Robotics / artificial intelligence
  • Science Daily: Robot News
  • Singularity Hub

Other (highlights only)

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Posted 1 year ago

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3 ways to land a job in VC

It’s that time of year when I get about 2-3 weekly requests to meet for “coffee” with current students or recent grads who want to get into venture capital. I’ve found myself giving the same advice time and time again (as have others), so I decided to write a quick post with a few words of guidance.

#1. Build an orthogonal network.
The value of a junior person at a venture firm is that he/she often has an orthogonal (meaning, in this case, non-redundant) network, compared to the aggregate of the firm. Unless a partner is looking for someone to simply execute on his/her own deal flow (which can be the case), that partner is really looking for someone who can bring in net new deals.

What that means is that you need to start building an orthogonal network immediately. Think about your unique advantage: where you grew up, where you studied, where you worked, how old you are, etc. As Malcolm Gladwell says in Outliers, “Who we are can not be separated from where we’re from.” Use where you’re from to your advantage.

#2. Build an expertise and develop an opinion.
The wonderful thing about technology is that something new is always popping up that no one fully understands. We backed a CEO who told me a little while ago that someone applied to his company with “4 years of iOS development experience,” to which he responded: “Either you’re lying, or you’re Steve Jobs.” iOS had only existed for 3 years at that point.

Start following all the blogs in your industry of interest and get to know all the key players. Talk to entrepreneurs in that space (use the old “I’m a student” excuse) and ask them who they compete with and how they see the market evolving. Develop an insight that is 50% gleaned from the market and 50% your own.

#3. Come bearing gifts.
Like the Greeks, if you want to open the gates of Troy, it’s helpful to come bearing gifts. The currency of the venture industry is introductions to exciting entrepreneurs. Take the results of #1 and #2 and generate a source of warm leads for a couple VCs you want to work with.

I guarantee that an offer to introduce an entrepreneur will get a higher hit rate in terms of VCs returning your call. 60% of the time, it works every time.

So, happy job hunting. And if you land a job in the venture industry, let me know. I’d enjoy welcoming you to the fold.

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