Why You Shouldn't Intern At A Startup

Startup companies can be great places to start your career. They tend to embrace the ideas and enthusiasm of young workers and offer fun, relaxed work environments.

However, less mature companies come with their own set of challenges. If this is your first forway into the working world, you need to carefully consider how the choice to intern at a startup will impact your career path.

1. Many startup companies don’t have name recognition outside of the startup community. This can really hurt you when you’re applying for your next job, especially if you’re seeking a position at a larger organization. If a hiring manager hasn’t heard of the first company listed on your resume, he/she may stop reading there.If you have piqued the resume screener’s interest, he/she will likely Google the company name. And, if, startup XYZ goes under without leaving behind a web presence, this can send up some red flags in the hiring manager’s mind.

2. You’ll work with little direction. It’s impossible to go through an interview with a startup without hearing the phrase “roles are fluid.” This means you’ll have a lot of freedom on the job, which is not necessarily a good thing.

One of the most difficult things I found about transitioning from school to the working world was the lack of structure. There was always more work to do than bodies to do it, and my manager didn’t have much time to coach me. I had to define the scope and due dates for my projects, and I was never sure how my manager would be evaluating me — a huge deviation from the rubric-driven world of academia.

If this is your first job, you have a lot to learn -- from time management to e-mail writing-- and good feedback is essential to that learning process.

3. You might have to do things you don’t want to do.

Inevitably, because of role fluidity, you will end up performing tasks outside of your job title. These opportunities will be great learning experiences. But they might also be boring or annoying.

At my last internship, since I was the youngest employee and by default most tech savvy, I became our company’s de facto “IT Expert.” So when we decided to switch e-mail providers, I was tasked with switching our accounts over. I had some frustrating conversations with technical support representatives and learned a whole lot more about MX records than I ever wanted to know.

4. You won’t necessarily learn best practices.

Very few startups will hand you a training manual on your first day; there won’t have been time to write one yet. Later on when you’re interviewing for jobs in the industry, you might realize that the way they were doing things at your last job was the most CONVENIENT way, but not the easiest or most effective.

5. There will be fewer networking opportunities.

Smaller companies employ fewer people. You’ll likely become very close with your boss and coworkers, but if you’re intent on growing your network, consider company size when you’re applying.

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