Undergraduate Blog / Career Development

Four Reasons Why I Only Work with Start-Ups

I’ve never once worked with an established company. So far, I’ve worked with five start-ups and have a handful of side ventures that I am pursuing. Here are my reasons why I enjoy working with start-ups:

1. Open and Collaborative Environment
Expect no more than 15 employees in the office. The smallest office I’ve worked in is in a WeWork space where it’s just two interns, the CEO, and the COO. Also, expect all the departments to be in one room. There’s no physical division between departments. One day you’ll be next to someone from marketing and the next day you’ll be next to someone from HR. The best part of this is that you’ll get to meet the entire company.

2. Nobody’s Your “Boss”
You’re probably wondering, “Isn’t your supervisor or manager your boss?” What I mean by nobody’s your “boss” is that you don’t feel like you’re reporting to someone. Despite the titles, the hierarchy in a start-up is not tangible. It doesn’t manifest into a rigid structure where one person reports to another. Everyone is treated the same, even interns!

3. Your Work has an Impact
What you do is clearly visible and results are easily observed. You’ll never once have to question why you’re doing something because the results will be right in front of you.

4. Entrepreneurial Insights
Learning by doing: You learn to build a business from scratch by building one with someone else. From personal experience, most of my CEOs had started businesses in the past or had started new or foreign departments for larger companies. As an aspiring entrepreneur, there is a lot to learn from people who had walked the path.