Navigating the London Startup Tech Scene Part III: So you Want to Work for a Startup?

Calling all Hipsters, Hustlers, and Hackers: Londons' startups want you to join their growing teams. 

At the TechStartups Job Fair in London this October, job seekers descended upon the Central Foundations Boys School sporting colourful Hipster, Hustler, or Hacker badges. London is a talent magnet and a great place to kick off a career in startups. Some job seekers present at the event were students looking for internship opportunities while others are working at stable corporate positions, but were curious about life at a startup. Global Operations Manager of TechMeetups, Silvija Jordanovska, who was a main organizer for the event, explains that the organization hosts two job fairs per year in London and many more around the world in cities like New York, Barcelona, and Amsterdam. “For this event, we had more than a thousand participants signed up” Jordanvoska underscores, “and the colourful badges served as an icebreaker for the recruiters to easily identify potential talents and start a conversation”. 

Companies hiring at the event ranged from those that are backed by some of the top VC in the world to those that are privately funded. Some are large companies with over 40 offices around the world, while others have only 5 employees and are looking to hire their sixth. Some of the most commonly sought out technical positions include Front End/Back End Developers, Product Managers, and  iOS developers. However, many start-ups are also growing so quickly that they are trying to fill multiple positions in both technical and non-technical capacities. 

One Hustler explained that the reason why he wanted to work for a startup was because he would eventually like to start his own business someday and thought that working at a startup would give him more insights on running his own business. Robert Sternberg, a DevOps Engineer at Cloudreach explained that working at a startup has a lot of perks for people early on in their careers. “I started in a big oil and gas company with a lot of bureaucracy and hierarchies”, Sternberg continues, “but people at Cloudreach are much easier to work with…people are treated as people.”  Many start-ups expect employees to do work outside of their job description and to contribute more directly to the company's growth. Sternberg urges job seekers to consider working at a startup as a strategic career move, “companies that are growing quickly need people who understand the whole process. If you are there from the beginning, it is much easier to get to a leading position…it’s a faster way of going up the career ladder.”

The London Start-up Job Fair is one of many events for job seekers in London. Katie, a Front End Hacker, explains that she has attended many tech meetups in the city such as Techtoberfest. Startup Job sites are also popular with job searchers. Some of the biggest job sites in London are the London Startup Jobs page, Angel.co, and Silicon Milk Roundabout.  Other great resources include the various Facebook Groups devoted to start up jobs. There is the general London Startup Jobs group as well as the Girls In Tech London group. Both have frequent postings about new positions.

Photo credit: TechMeetup

Check out part one of the Navigating the London Tech Startup Scene series here

Check out part two of the Navigating the London Tech Startup Scene series here