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STEM professionals share the truth about working at a startup

STEM professionals share the truth about working at a startup

The good, the bad and the ugly about the startup life told by scientists and engineers building the future

Giammarco Pacifico
November 15, 2023

Joining a startup is a relatively new option for STEM professionals and we are seeing more and more of them leaping to nascent companies, hoping to find meaningful work that fits their skills and ambitions.

But every startup is different and there are a lot of misconceptions out there about what it truly means to work at a startup - so we’ve asked a few engineers and scientists to share their experience working at startups.

A heartfelt thank you to Martina, Jelisaveta, Patricia, Cristiana, Richard and a few other anonymous contributors who shared the unfiltered truth of the startup life.

Let’s dive in!

The Good

Not surprisingly one of the best things about working at a startup is the flexibility of working on different aspects of the company, beyond the technical features of the product that are usually the bread and butter of STEM professionals.

The opportunity to wear multiple hats paired with a culture of fast-decision making is a recipe for unparalleled learning opportunities (no matter if we are always aware of them or not).

“I really enjoy the opportunity to see how different aspects of the company work and learn new skills outside of the technical realm.”

“What I love the most about working in a startup is the variety of different hats you can wear. You have your dedicated position, but you can also be included in other departments and explore what fits more to you - something which I find extremely valuable, especially for someone who is just starting out.”

“In a startup, employees are empowered to think on their feet, make quick decisions, and tackle challenges in real-time.”

If startups are all about learning, another way to learn fast is by having regular access to company leaders, which allows you to get immediate feedback on ideas while also directly impacting the company’s direction.

“Having access to the CEO and C-level people to talk to them about strategy and the big picture makes it much easier to understand why certain decisions are made.”

“I love the proximity you can have to any person in the organization, like on a given day I can just quickly have a chat with the CEO or my project manager and that can be brought to the leadership meeting of that week.”

The Bad

Despite what news headlines might tell you, startups are not for everybody and if you speak with people who founded a startup, most of them would say they would not have done it if they knew what it meant.

There is certainly a sprinkle of naivete in every ambitious decision and the same is true for joining an early-stage company: there is so little already done and everything to prove that the challenge is not for the faint of heart.

Even the pro above might quickly turn into a not-so-great experience: wearing multiple hats and constantly learning new things means by definition not being very good at them and you must be comfortable with that.

Communication also becomes extremely important as a little bit of misalignment can completely drift the company's direction.

“[I learned] how difficult effective communication can still be even though the company is relatively small.”

Sometimes it feels great to be David against Goliath. Until you realize that size gets you the proper attention, which is very hard to get when you are a startup and everybody tends to overlook you, especially large companies.

This might sound like a little problem but if you’re considering joining a startup, get ready for some headache.

“Dealing with large companies or entities as a small player can be frustrating and very time-consuming.”

Everybody says that startups are risky - but what do they mean?

As an early-stage startup employee you are choosing a higher financial risk given the company is most likely not profitable and needs to keep raising money, which might be harder than expected.

“There is also an element of [financial] risk, especially as we have been going through a funding round and facing the difficulties of the current funding environment.”

Another type of risk is about your career progression. In a large company, your next steps are usually laid out for you and the ladder is there, ready to be climbed. This does not make it easy but the rules of the game are quite clear and it’s up to you to put in the work. This is not what happens in startups.

“If you are someone who wants to have a clear, certain and unchangeable career path, [working at a startup] might feel frustrating.”

The Ugly

The most dangerous aspects of our lives are the “unknown unknowns” - the things we don’t know we don’t know. This is where it can get ugly and you might end up making painful mistakes.

The silver lining is that the best way to learn if something is the right path for you is to try it yourself.

“There is no rule book or detailed protocol, you will have to create your own and it will keep improving constantly.”

The second best thing is to learn from others so that (hopefully) you don’t end up falling for the same traps.

First of all, if you’ve been binging We Crashed, get your hopes in check:

“It's not all ping-pong tables and bean bags in the office!”

We all dream of flat organizations where everybody has a say but although having flat structures can be great for rapid decision-making, it’s not so easy to overcome the expectations and power that comes with big titles.

“People’s predetermined notion of a role makes it hard for people with different roles to have a saying. I would maybe get rid of the many fluffy job titles like Director of X or Senior Y as most of them just create division within the employees and make people entitled”

But if you ask for more responsibility, get ready to become accountable.

“[I was surprised by] the level of responsibility and multitasking it demands, which can be more intense than I initially thought.”

If you are working in academia or within a large company and you’re considering joining a startup, I hope this piece has shed some light on what it truly means to join this world. Let us know if you have more questions about the startup life.

This week's top scientific reads

Too many CT scans can lead to blood cancer (Nature Medicine)
Running lab experiments using voice controls (Nature Scientific Reports)
Eli Lilly enters the obesity drug market with FDA approval (Eli Lilly)
Do pets increase well-being? Not during COVID-19 (Personality and Social Phycology Bulletin)
Physical activity during childhood makes you smarter (Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports)

Read my comments on these articles here.

Latest funding rounds in health & bio

Ready to turn this news into your next career opportunity? Here is how

Dreamfarm raised a €5M Pre-seed round to become the leading producer of vegan mozzarella 🇮🇹
Nūmi raised €3M to further advance its breast milk substitute from cell-cultured mammary glands 🇫🇷
Deepeye closed a $2M Seed round for their solution against retinal diseases, starting with age-related macular degeneration 🇩🇪
Kamleon raised €1M for its smart urinal product (S-Urinal) tailored to the sports sector that measures people’s hydration levels in real-time 🇪🇸
Nouscom raised €67.5M for its platform of viral vector vaccines targeting multiple types of solid tumours 🇨🇭
Toopi Organics closed €8.4M to develop their plant biostimulants from the fermentation of human urine to use as a fertiliser 🇫🇷
Glox Therapeutics raised a £4.3m Seed round to advance their precision antibiotics against drug-resistant bacteria 🇬🇧

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