Attention undergraduates: at a certain point before you graduate, you will job search. I know you don’t want to think about it between that fourth bag of wine you funneled this weekend and that third hit of that 6 foot bong, but it’s coming and very soon you’ll have to put on that suit you saved for your uncle’s funeral for a new kind of final farewell: the job interview marking the end of your carefree college days.
Now, I could give you a big list of no-fun don’ts on job searching that you could get from Career Services (don’t tweet complaints about work, don’t upload photos of yourself setting the keg stand record, don’t tell your interviewer that her glasses make her look like a sexy librarian, etc.), but I have more important pre-career advice: make sure you really look into that awesome startup offering you that fancy title and X-box down time.
They’re totally cool though, right? They wear jeans and t-shirts, work a “flexible” schedule and are just about to get that sweet investment that will pay your salary. You can wait for that investment though before they pay you, right? They’ll totally give you equity and those student loans won’t kick in for another six months, so you’re flexible.
Don’t get me wrong; I work for a startup. But, it took taking jobs at three different companies in order to get to the right one and there was a long, painful period where I wasn’t sure if my rent check was going to clear without a sizeable loan from my parents. Life after college really sucks if you find yourself suddenly and unexpectedly jobless and terrified you’re going to have to find a third job in less than six months.
Here are a few warning signs that the startup offering you your dream job probably isn’t the sweet deal you think it is:
