Loading...
Answers
MenuWhat's a better next step: hacking a more senior role in my current org? Or jumping to another industry?
Answers
Try a non-traditional approach and go for the best of both worlds. (Note: Whether this makes sense and would work depends on the details of the situation, which I don't know)
1) At your current job, bring up your idea for the new internal program and say you'd like to take charge of it. Don't ask for a raise, just say it's something you want to do.
You'll be helping _yourself_ out by A) learning new skills in your new position, and B) getting a promotion which looks good on paper.
You'll also be helping your _company_ out by A) setting up a new internal program which in theory will benefit them (if it's a good idea), and B) not asking for anything in return.
2) Now that you and your company are both better off, A) start keeping an eye out for people in your team (or from outside the company) that would do well in your current position as director. You can even start 'grooming' them for the position. B) Start keeping an eye out for startups that interest you (Angellist, etc.), go to entrepreneur meetups, come up with startup ideas of your own, etc. If you find a cool opportunity go for it. You'll already have built a more diverse set of skills, and look better on paper, both of which will help you get it. Meanwhile, if you don't end up leaving your current company, you've put yourself in a position for an easy raise if the project goes well.
Note: this strategy is only cool to try _if_ the project you initiate with your current company wouldn't totally fall apart without you if/when you decide to leave (i.e. if it's likely that someone else could take your place and keep the project successful and benefiting the company, instead of a liability). That way it's still a win-win, even if you end up leaving.
If you want to discuss your options more according to the specifics of your situation feel free to set up a call,
all the best,
Lee
If you ask me the better step would be hacking a more senior role in your current organization. One of the most disruptive changes we have seen in business over the last decade is the end of the traditional “career”. While many think the solution to this problem is to build a flexible, meaningful workplace, and give people benefits like free food, unlimited vacation, and lavish bonuses -- the problem is much more fundamental. In this article I will explore this problem in a little more detail, to give you a sense of how complex and important it is to rethink what a career means in your company. Instead of each person in a business trying to do manufacturing, marketing, sales, and finance, we create teams of functional specialists, driving down cost. These specialists can do more for less, enabling the business to grow at an ever-increasing profit. When I went to work for IBM in the early 1980s, the company had a large and highly specialized sales force, one that had deep sales skills and relationships with businesses and IT departments around the world. This functional organization, which had a career model all its own, enabled IBM to aggressively sell hundreds of new IBM technologies around the world in a noticeably short period of time.
This dual path career model, which is still dominant in most large companies, attempts to create a steady supply of leaders. It builds on the concept of a “HIPO”, someone who is identified early in their career as someone «who could move up two levels in the organization. We identify future leaders early and we “slot” them into the right side of the pyramid. I believe HIPO programs are important but often over-emphasized. Behind the concept of succession is the idea of “readiness.” Books like The Leadership Pipeline teach HR people how to prepare people for the next level of leadership, and most companies have multi-year programs to build ready leaders throughout the company.
Such programs continue to exist throughout business, even though more than 88% of all senior leaders tell us that one of their top problems is “gaps in the leadership pipeline”. So, while this process continues to be institutionalized within HR, I believe we must reinvent it for the years ahead.
On the professional side of the pyramid, the architecture of a career is less clear. My experience with “professional career models” is that they are multi-faceted and far more difficult to understand. One way to think about this is that you, as an organization, need a HIPRO program to match your HIPO program. You simultaneously learn “management” skills by learning how projects are managed, what makes a project succeed, and how to make a project successful.
And in the case of engineering, this means understanding project management, agile methodologies and other managerial skills which do not fall into the domain of “leadership development”.
Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath
Related Questions
-
What does it mean to 'grandfather you in' in the tech world?
It stands for allowing someone to continue doing or use something that is normally no longer permitted (due to changing regulations, internal rules etc.)OO
-
How should I approach starting a coaching business when I am still job hunting?
Catch 22? Not at all...You need to project your weakness ( according to you) as a strength. Be open and bold about your online business. It is work experience and not a career break! You take that experience to the companies who are in the same line of business and you are very exciting for them. Please dont waste your time with recruiters. They have fixated ideas and mandates and can rarely identify or appreciate real talent. You need to get rid off your baggage you are carrying in your head. Your non-profit work would never become a business as your target customers cant afford to pay. Keep it that way and continue doing good karma. Join relevant LinkedIn groups based on your business and connect with like minded people. Target businesses in the same domain and directly contact them seeking appointments with hiring managers. Go as an entrepreneur and explore synergies. There is no shame in saying that your business did not work. But analyze why. If you feel that it is only because you did not promote it actively, then please go ahead and promote the hell out of it. Being an entrepreneur is the best work experience any employer can get as you would know the entire business cycle. You never know, your promotion, done in the right way may actually create more jobs!FS
-
Should you split equity equally with a tech cofounder if you have an MVP, some traction but you know that you're going to need a CTO when it takes off
If you and this person, *know* they won't be the CTO, then absolutely not. If there's an understanding that the engineer you are working with is going to "cap out" soon beyond the MVP, why would you ruin your cap table? This *should* help you get a reasonable amount of equity. http://foundrs.com/ The most crucial question is where this current contributor is likely going to be out of their element. Are they only front-end and have no back-end ability? If so, you really should raise (from a friend or family member) or borrow the money necessary to pay this person a reasonable cash rate. If on the other hand, they can take a successful MVP and build a reasonable back-end but will cap out on scaling it past 100,000 users, or for example, you're an enterprise company and you know you'll require a technical person to be part of closing early sales, then it's ok to give up meaningful equity. But another key question is: Are you ok to let this person define your company's engineering culture? If this person isn't capable of or comfortable managing your tech team in the early-days, this person should have no more than 10% equity. Of course, your shares and theirs (whatever you decide) should be subject to a vesting agreement (minimum 3 years and preferably 4). It's easy to give away equity when it's worth very little but as I've said here before on Clarity, imagine your company today being worth $100,000,000. Can you imagine this person contributing $20,000,000 worth of value to achieve that outcome? $30m? $50m? Here's the thing though. If this person can grow into a CTO, and wants the chance, and there's no warning signs that it will be a tough slog for them to get there, and they're a passionate believer in what's been built to date, then it's entirely reasonable to bet (with equity) that they can get there. I know a lot of CTO's of great Series A and beyond companies with amazing traction that started off as lacking a lot of the criteria of a great CTO candidate. This is an area I've helped coach a lot of startup CEOs through and have experience in myself. Happy to talk through in a call to understand the specifics of your scenario and provide more detailed advice.TW
-
What companies have successfully implemented both B2B and B2C products or services? Which should I start with for the non-profit sector?
I would suggest the first question to ask is "what problem do I solve?" And of those people I solve problems for "who do I create the most value for?" In the non-profit world you need to add "How does my business help the non-profit run better and/or help the group the non-profit focuses on?" For example, if you've created a platform that drives donations, your company "has created a platform that helps you reach fundraising goals faster." What you don't want to do is market and sell to B2B and B2C audiences simultaneously. They have different ways of buying - a B2B audience needs to have their benefits quantified (using your thing makes me x amount more) - and it's extremely hard for a startup to be able to do both well. Better to start with one, execute really well and move into the other. Feel free to give me a call and we can dig into who your most valuable audience is.AV
-
What do you recommend I should invest my time and knowledge into at 18, that will impact my future for the better?
What's your end goal? Do you want to be a great employee? Or a business owner? What kind of a business owner--hands on, or Olympian? Big differences. Specialized skills are what's necessary for being a great employee or hands-on business owner. If you want to be a leading, delegating, deal-making business owner, then you need a different skill set. In either case, simply knowing what you want and being able to articulate it will put you ahead of 99% of the pack. Most people have no idea what they want and drift from thing to thing...their next job is similar to their last, or the first one that was offered to them... You can literally shave years off your career path by being ultra-clear on your target and going straight for it. I've had employers create custom roles for me four times. Each one knocked several years off my career path. It's why I was a production manager with six supervisors and over 150 floor employees reporting to me at 26. I created that job, by sending the employer a package detailing my plan and requirements. Want to partner with the best to learn specialized skills? Sell them on the idea of why they need to hire YOU and only you. Want to learn the art of deal making, delegating and other soft skills? Sell the right kind of business owner on why they need to hire YOU and only you as their assistant. Get IN. Once you're IN, you will get a completely different view of the world. For example, I worked for a national electrical wholesaler for four years. A guy was an accounting clerk when I started, and after awhile he got promoted to assistant to the GM for an area with 11 branches. That guy instantly got access to all the high level data and IN on the decision making at that level. He got to see the issues, information, solutions, and people who played at that level. Near the end of my time there I did a stock tracking project and worked with him. On my first day, I was shocked to see all this data. I was suddenly IN. Nobody else in my department got to see this data. And it was "no big thang" for these head office guys; they worked at this level every day. Set your target and get IN. I bet you cut 10 years off your learning curve by doing so.JK
the startups.com platform
Copyright © 2025 Startups.com. All rights reserved.