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Comment by throwaway41441 | Hacker News Reader

Got direct feedback from one that I lacked skills in fast growing startups and two feedbacks that I wasn't a fit (even though I had all requirements in the job description). So that got me wondering what I could improve.

I think I'm competing with fresh graduates. I applied at startups with 20-200 employees initially. Really looking for that experience of taking something of the ground and scaling.

I know we shouldn't take rejections too seriously but reality is it was always easy for me to find a job. Maybe I've been too picky and overestimated my skills, maybe companies are being too picky now. I'm not sure but I'm thinking hard about this.

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Might be talking to the wrong startups but also might be dealing with leaders who lack vision.

Spend time to figure out what your strengths and weaknesses are with those "fresh graduates". As a startup founder, I would take a 10x engineer any day. Fresh grads bring great energy and enthusiasm but experienced heads make sure my business is going to make the simple mistakes.

Don't sell yourself short. You're definitely valuable to any organization (startup or otherwise) as you've seen the best and worst of both worlds. You're an incredible asset.

Having worked at and hired in both startups and the enterprise the startup cop-out is to stereotype someone with an enterprise background and expect them to behave just like an enterprise, bureaucratically. This is a major fear within startups because they often don't have the spare time/energy to reshape someone's mindset. It's unfortunate and leads to a lot of skipped candidates but expediency !== efficiency.

There comes a stage in each successful startup when they start looking for adult supervision and explicitly seek enterprise experience. If you are looking for early stage work you should make it obvious that you get the startup's space and have a fast-execution mindset.

Without even knowing you, I want to say that you're probably not too picky. You may have overestimated your skills though, or maybe you've just forgotten which of your skills are most appealing to startups. My full-time job is connecting with, talking to, and helping startups hire software developers. It varies from company to company (and from department to department), but I wouldn't say that fresh graduates are the top choice from an employer's perspective.

Feel free to reach out to me by email if you think I can offer more specific advice/help/resources.

I'd be glad to do a quick mock interview and try to give you some advice. I've done a lot of hiring with various startups.

Can others take you up on this?

Take a look at https://interviewing.io if you're looking to practice interviews. I've used it in the past and it was immensely helpful.

Many thanks, wasn't aware there were services like this on demand.

You might be asking for too much money.

This is a good point. Iinterviewed recently after leaving a startup I cofounded and was really looking for some financial security. I talked to a couple of startups and was clear about this and I think this turned them off.

Not sure if you've been really clear about your salary expectations and rosk profile, but if you haven't, it might gather you more offers if you are.

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