How to choose a career?
This is an important one, and most of the thoughts below is my poor attempt at synthesizing what Andy Rachleff has told me and several others over the years.
Also, in my personal opinion over-thinking career planning or getting too detailed is a waste of time, much of the future is unpredictable and there are too many changes that happen outside of your direct control. A lot of success is a combination of people you meet, choices you randomly make (but justify cleverly in hindsight) and half chances that turned out to be right.
Having said that having a broad framework really helps and I am going to put these framework in 3 simple rules.
Rule 1: Industry First, Company Second, Role Third
Most people choosing careers either fixate on a corporation they want to work for or index on a role they feel they must do. The Industry they end up in is almost a by-product of the choosing the role or the company they work for.
Andy cleverly states that roles change rapidly and companies can come and go, but industry trends and industry growth are more predictable and stay true for much longer. Also, industries going through rapid changes, provide the greatest chance of success, since change at an industry level - sinks some old ships, rises some new ones, and new paradigms are created and people are more willing to take chances on the young and inexperienced, since in a changing paradigm traditional experience don’t matter much, but ability to move fast does.
So chose an industry that is under-going change, that you do have an inclination towards, and then find a company that is doing interesting work or showing great potential. Companies doing interesting work in a changing industry or showing great track-record in terms of growing users/revenues, is going to be a great learning ground and a magnet for other interesting people. Finally, when it comes to roles - it doesn’t matter. If you joined Google amongst the first 100 employees, it matters very little what your role was. Chris Cox (facebook) , Marisa Mayer (Google) , Rachel Holt (Uber) are all great case studies of how roles don’t matter, if you pick the right industry and a fast growing company, you will do more than okay :)
Please note: Think of industries intelligently. Twitter is not media industry but tech industry (because the problem it solves to grow resembles more like other tech companies than other media companies). Similarly Uber is not a taxi company and Airbnb is not a hotel company - but tech industries. For these companies to grow, the the problems they solve resemble google more than Yellow Cab company or Hilton respectively. Plus, for them to continue to grow, the industry - the tech industry has to grow i.e. the pervasiveness of technology in our life has to continue to grow.
For the second reason, a bitcoin start-up is different from other tech start-ups, while the engineering problems are similar to other tech companies. But for blockchain start-ups to grow, a different industry trend must come true than traditional tech firms.
Rule 2: Join a fast growing company
Join a company which is showing potential and early signs of growth. Andy says that your highest expected value for wealth is joining a fast growing company, not necessarily starting one. He publishes a list of 50 career launching companies every year, here is the list of 2020.
My personal thesis is that its already too late to join the company once they have made the list, you probably want to do your research and join these companies 1-2 years before they make the list.
How to do that in silicon valley? Use rule 1 to a narrow a industry, then track all Series A/B investments from top tier VC firms in that space in the last 18 months, do your research and cast a wide net. Be role agnostic, and work hard to join them. If you do this every 3-4 years, you will be right at least once in the next 15-20 years, allowing you to join the 1% club before you turn 40 :)
Its a simple rule, but difficult to follow and implement. Just like in investing - buy low and sell high is an easy rule but incredibly hard to follow.
Rule 3: Most good things happen because of the people you are with
This is a rule I learnt from Eric Schmidt of Google and has held true in my life. This is not so much about choosing which company to join or career decision to make - but once you are at any company - please don’t break sweat on titles and getting ahead at any cost - find the people who inspire you, whose learning capabilities and world-view excites you, build genuine relationships with them, participate in their curiosity, feed them your own and have fun with them. Most good things in life eventually come from people you chose to befriend, follow and learn from. Keep good company and nurture it.
