Launching your career at a startup can be an advantageous move — but is it right for you? Here’s how to find out

Cameron Watford didn’t expect to join a startup fresh out of college — and that gave her an edge.

“Going into it, I had no idea what startups entailed. I had no prior experience or expectations, so I was able to remain very open minded and flexible,” says the sales manager at Seamless.AI. 

Working for a startup meant Watford’s responsibilities were constantly shifting, and she quickly learned to embrace change and thrive in the unknown — earning two promotions since joining the software development startup in May 2021.

So, what does it take to succeed at a startup?

LinkedIn’s Top Startups list is a resource to find the startups to pay attention to right now, featuring 50 U.S. companies on the rise. If you’re wondering whether they’ll take a chance on someone without a lot of work experience, just take a look at Seamless.AI, Nuro and Vuori — three startups on this year’s list where entry-level roles accounted for more than half of all company hires, according to LinkedIn data.

I spoke to recent grads at these three startups for an inside look into what it takes to flourish in a scrappy environment. 

Change is inevitable, so stay flexible

What initially attracted Watford to Seamless.AI was the company’s remote-first policy. As a pandemic graduate from the College of Charleston, the now 23-year-old says she wanted to find a job that allowed her to work from wherever she desired. So, Watford applied to Seamless.AI, landed an offer and quickly got immersed in her role as a sales development representative. 

Within three months, Watford moved up to a team lead position, which is when she was introduced to different sides of the startup. 

“The majority of the time, I was bringing in new business, but I was still working with our account executive department to grow their current business, with our marketing department to help grow content and with our operations team to narrow down what our key prospects were. That input, I would never get to have going to a corporation that already has it set in stone,” she says. 

Watford was handed more responsibility just five months later with a promotion to sales manager.

Despite the challenges she faced along the way — most notably, learning to keep up with constant change — Watford says she viewed every experience as an opportunity for growth.

“Change is a double-edged sword. I am not somebody that loves change, but I was able to put a positive spin on it and look at it as growth,” she says. “You have to be very adaptive and learn very quickly to be a part of a startup because things do change and we are going at a very fast pace.”

Find motivation in what you do

A fast-paced environment is exactly the type of workplace Eileen Huang wanted to join post grad, and she knew she would find that at a startup. 

“When you're in school, you're working on a lot of projects and timelines are really tight. You’re constantly moving, moving, moving. I was looking for something that's fast paced, especially as a new grad in the workplace trying to learn as much as possible,” says the software engineer at Nuro. 

Huang first learned of Nuro, which develops autonomous delivery vehicles, from one of her peers at the University of Pennsylvania who had previously interned at the startup.  

“She had interned at a bunch of large companies as well, and when she interned at Nuro, she was like, ‘It felt like a completely different environment. Everyone was super motivated, super driven and very focused on one mission,’” Huang says.

With a good indication of what it would be like to work at Nuro, Huang applied after completing her master’s degree in 2020. Looking back almost three years later, the now 25-year-old says she has kept up with the pace of a fast-moving company by finding motivation in the work she does every day. 

“Self-driving itself, there are so many different avenues to explore to make it successful, whether it's from the technology side or from the business model side. That's really motivating, to go in every day and be like, ‘I'm trying to solve an unsolved problem,’” she says. 

Throughout her time at Nuro, Huang says she has been supported by her team, as well as her manager who has helped her prioritize technical growth. And by working in person, which Huang says she finds “much easier” than being remote, she has collaborated with employees across the startup.

“At lunch, people mingle together. Even if your work doesn't directly interface, hearing about the challenges they face is interesting because then you can think about, ‘On the hardware side, they have this problem. Maybe there's some sort of software solution that we could help implement that would make their jobs easier and vice versa,’” she says.

Tap your (small) team’s expertise

Just like Huang who prefers working in person, Vuori’s Laurel Revers is in the office five days a week. As a visual learner, Revers says she likes to be hands-on in her role on the women’s product development team at Vuori, an athletic and performance clothing brand.

“If I can touch things and see things … that’s how I learn best,” she says.  

After learning of Vuori and its mission while studying at the University of Alabama, the now 22-year-old decided to apply. Revers says she never planned on going the startup route, until she did an internship at a sustainable denim startup the summer before her senior year. 

“That made me interested in a space and a job that was creative and new,” she says. 

Now five months into her role at Vuori, Revers says she’s had the opportunity to work with a diverse team, from recent graduates like herself to professionals with 30 years of experience under their belt. 

“Working with people who have all of these great skills that can teach you so much is so beneficial post grad,” she says. “I feel like I have like 10 different mentors here, which is amazing. I can go to anybody and they give me great answers.”

On a tight-knit team of four, Revers says she has worked closely with her colleagues on a day-to-day basis, learning from their cross-functional expertise.

“It's been a learning experience for everyone together. We’re holding hands and doing it like a little family,” she says. 

Deciding if it’s the right move for you

While kicking off a career at a startup can have advantages, working at an early-stage company isn’t for everyone.

“A lot of it has to do with self-awareness: who you are, what you know, what gets you excited and what you feel you need to learn,” says Julia Austin, who is a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School, startup advisor and angel investor. 

Although joining a startup early in your career can make you more “attractive to a bigger company who wants to bring in more scrappiness,” Austin says you need to be comfortable “with the rules changing often, a lot of mistakes being made and a lot of being out on your own to figure it out.”

You also need to know going in that startups are inherently riskier than mature companies. Researching how many rounds of fundraising a startup has completed is also a good way to assess its stability. 

“Certainly a company that's raised a couple of rounds of money, who has real revenue, who has a seasoned founder — meaning it's not the first time they've started a company — could make you feel more comfortable taking the risk,” Austin says.

Austin also notes that mentorship and fast promotions aren’t guaranteed. Moreover, if you move up the ranks too quickly at a startup, Austin says your job title “might not translate if you want to then try to go to a big company.” 

Conversely, working for a large company also offers certain advantages, as Austin breaks down:

If you end up deciding to try out a startup, Austin recommends searching for young businesses in your city, as well as checking out accelerators such as Techstars or Y Combinator. And when you find a company that interests you, reach out even if there isn't a job posting. 

“Don't just go to the classic postings and look for jobs because they're not all posting, but they're all hiring. If they raise money, they're hiring,” she says. 

To learn more about Seamless.AI, Nuro and Vuori — and other Top Startups on the rise — check out the full list here. Join the conversation using #linkedintopstartups.