

How to Make an Impact During the First Month of Your Startup Job - estromberg
http://estromberg.com/post/13592135871/how-to-make-an-impact-during-the-first-month-of-your

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asolove
I just started at my first startup job a few months ago, and agree with a lot
of the sentiment in this post.

The biggest difference I have noticed: at most companies, a new employee is a
body to get done the same work, in the same way, as somebody else. You are
defined by how well you execute an already-constructed set of tasks and goals.

At a startup, you are valuable if you add a whole new set of opinions and
skills to the team. If you come in and just do what you're asked, even if you
do it well, you probably aren't doing very well. You should notice things
about the business that are not optimal, blind-spots that the previous
employees hadn't thought about, easy ways to save or make lots of money, even
though these things aren't part of your formal job description.

~~~
ashrust
I disagree a little here. Taking on extra projects and solving problems
outside of your remit is certainly great. However, you must also take the time
to do the job for which you were hired - very well.

Your X factor value is important but don't leave the company with a hole you
were brought in to fill.

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j_baker
I'm just going to throw this out there, but I think this list is BS. There's
really only two bullet points you need:

1\. Get things done.

2\. Make sure people _know_ you're getting things done.

...and not necessarily in that order either. Being labeled "impractical" is
the kiss of death in a startup.

Do those things, and most successful startups won't care about the other
bullet points.

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marquis
I appreciate a new employee making suggestions as to how we can streamline
processes, make documentation better, get up later and do the same amount of
work.. don't underestimate how valuable it is to have a fresh pair of eyes.

~~~
j_baker
I would argue that they fall under "getting things done". Because they _do_
help people get things done, right? :-)

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kaybe
I guess you can either have two bullet points and elaborate them quite a bit
(because not everything is obvious to everyone) or just make more bullet
points like the original. :)

~~~
j_baker
Ask and you shall receive: <http://jasonmbaker.com/get-results>

...although this probably isn't a _ton_ better. :-)

~~~
marquis
I do disagree with your 'you can be an asshole %X more if you are getting
results'. In fact I would consider being an asshole indicative of not getting
results as it can alienate your co-workers (and boss!).

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ja27
I saw something great in some Seth Godin piece. If your boss (or team) doesn't
yet trust you to do big, impactful things, take on other projects to earn
their trust. The breakthrough idea was that they don't have to be product
projects. Just organizing lunch, a team build, software purchase, etc. can be
enough. As a coder, those seem trivial but to a non-coder they're just as big
and important a task.

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tmurray
There's another side to being optimistic that's extremely important when
you're proposing an idea. I don't mean assuming every new idea is great or
that every proposal will work out exactly as planned; that's obviously a
recipe for disaster. In my experience, any sufficiently technical person will
already have an opinion on whether or not some proposal works by the instant
someone finishes explaining his or her big new idea. A lot of times, these
opinions will be correct. However, often these opinions will be based on
assumptions from situations in the past that were similar in some way but
aren't necessarily important now.

As someone proposing a new idea, you should find out what the assumptions
behind these objections are and why they're considered relevant now. Make
someone explain the fundamentals of why something won't work instead of
immediately walking away and telling yourself, "oh, someone objected, clearly
they know more than I do and this idea will never be good."

Getting into the habit of identifying your assumptions and challenging them
also helps you keep a more objective viewpoint over time by helping you to
understand accepted wisdom instead of simply parroting it.

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Cl4rity
This post couldn't have come at a better time for me. While I'm not exactly
working for a start-up--I'm working for a large publisher whose latest
publication is almost two years old--a lot of this advice still applies. The
biggest bullet point there for me is taking ownership, because it's true that
things sometimes won't ever get done unless you do it yourself.

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stretchwithme
I would add to the list finding a big security hole or other risk and fixing
it.

I joined an e-commerce team at a major systems integrator and discovered they
had left the default password in place for the administrative interface of
their flagship implementation.

It was actually possible to delete the entire product database using the
website. I changed the password immediately, of course.

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pnathan
I get the idea that these things - thing actually - it is also called
initiative - really can be said about any fairly flexible job and position.

I know a carpenter who is looking for the same thing when he hires or
subcontracts.

