Lest you get too comfortable about record low unemployment creating heavy demand for workers, consider Eastman Kodak Co. Last month, the film company said it will cut 10,000 jobs as part of a two-year restructuring program designed to cut $1 billion in costs. Levi Strauss said it will cut 6,395 jobs. With big-name employers still enduring wrenching restructuring programs, it’s little wonder some workers are gravitating to startup companies, dubbed the new growth engine of the economy. But if your resume is full of big brand names, how do you find the smaller ponds, and how do you avoid the piranhas?
When Lori Simon, 40, took on the titles of corporate development director and general counsel for a tiny software company in Chicago four months ago, she changed just about every aspect of her former work life. Several months earlier Simon had been a partner at Latham & Watkins, a large law firm with 70 lawyers in Chicago alone. “I went from a power suit to where some of my blue jeans were too nice,” says Simon, who now works for Jellyvision, the 40-employee company that created the popular educational computer game “You Don’t Know Jack.” She also traded a plush downtown office for loft space near North Avenue and Halsted Street, and a stable work environment for a startup environment. What she gets in return is a direct hand in the business aspects of the company, working with licensing partners and vendors who supply key aspects of the product, as well as a greater overall voice in running the company. With that, the executive doesn’t worry about what would happen if the company disappeared tomorrow. “Obviously, small ventures carry risk, but so do big companies. For them it might not be, are we going to fold? But it might be, is the company a good fit?”
Liz Michaels, 31, joined Jellyvision as business director a year ago after a stint as chief operating officer for Morningstar, the large financial publishing house in Chicago. “You really are taking a flier,” she says now about jumping to a relatively unknown company. Like Simon, however, Michaels trusted her instincts about Jellyvision owner Harry Gottlieb, and reasoned that even if the business failed, she’d still have valuable experience.
Both women heard of Jellyvision through acquaintances and the little companies are difficult to find any other way. So how to unearth the good ones? That takes some detective work, says Jeanne Wilt, career development director for the University of Michigan’s graduate business school. Link up with a strong business library in your city, she suggests. Even better: Many schools will allow alumni to search the school’s alumni database by region and industry, which could elicit some good prospects, she says. Armed with potential prospects, you can begin to effectively network and set yourself up to hear about openings through the grapevine.
Once you find a potential company, do a background check, suggests Steven Baker, regional director for the Federal Trade Commission. For starters, he says, check out claims made on the company’s World Wide Web site, run a Better Business Bureau complaint check and inquire with the Secretary of State’s office to see if the company is a registered business.
Then you need to consider how you will come across in a resume and an interview. Stressing accomplishments and not corporate lineage is key, says Wilt. “If you’ve spent 15 years with an employer, the new company is going to look at how molded to the culture they think you are. `How used to a secretary and an information systems team is she?’ “
Keep your attire formal for the interviewing process, Wilt suggests, but loosen up on your resume and in your interview conversations, letting the small company know you’re not just an empty suit at a brand-name firm, but that you performed and got results. And don’t appear arrogant. Small companies are not just looking for particular experience, but at how each individual fits into an existing team. If you’re older than the rest of the crew at a startup, for example, let your resume tout your accomplishments while you focus your interview comments on brainstorming about current issues in the business, remembering to ask good questions along the way.
“Convince them. . .that you are a walking solution to an identifiable problem,” advises Bob Wilcox, executive director of career and corporate alliances for the University of Chicago’s business school.
