Gessica Lomonte, MIM Graduate

The following post was composed by one of our MIM Alumni, Gessica Lomonte. You can check out how her start-up is doing, here.

When you are starting a new company finding awesome team members can be one of your biggest challenges. Your salary is likely to be much lower than the market rate; your boss could be younger than you are and you’ll probably become tired of listening to sentences like “We are running out on cash”. It is going to be hard, but living with these kinds of fears will really make an impact on you. Maybe you might not ever gain much in terms of monetary compensation, but on a personal level rewards are priceless. Here are three benefits you will have:

First-hand Experience

Maybe working for a huge multinational company would give you greater security, but on the other hand, it would also entail more corporate ladders and less responsibility. In a start-up everyone is expected to contribute right from the beginning, to actually make decisions and all in an environment with almost no hierarchy, which means you will manage and learn multiple parts of the business at the same time and a faster pace.

The Chance to make a visible Impact

Problems are catalysts for start-ups. Companies are created with the aim of finding solutions for everyday problems, or for making our lives easier. By working in a start-up and given that teams tend to be rather small, you will be able to contribute and be part of that solution through your ideas and your work.

Attitude and Environment

As Steve Jobs said “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do”. But most importantly, whether you love your job or not will depend on the people that surround you. Start-up teams are usually made of young and ambitious individuals, and chances are they are also a bit crazy, or at least that is what the rest of the world thinks of them, just because they believe in the unbelievable – and that positive attitude towards the future will shape your personality.

Maybe your salary will be lower, maybe you will have to bring your own laptop to work, and maybe you won’t have monetary benefits; but you will build great friendships and most importantly you will see the outcome of your actions and you will be seen as a person, not a mere number in the annual balance sheet equation.

First published on the Master in Management Blog.

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