Pros
This is the third tech startup I’ve worked at, and it’s *far and away* the best. Handshake is focused on a mission that matters, with a world-class team behind it, and a massive business opportunity. The reasons I joined, and the reasons I plan to stay here long-term are the… - Mission: Handshake was created to democratize access to opportunity for all students. The founders, and the team they’ve built, are incredibly passionate about fulfilling this mission. And it’s not just words on a website - the business model they’ve chosen, the daily decisions being made, and the tough trade-offs that emerge - are all deliberate decisions with a “students first” approach. - Team & Culture: I’m consistently thankful for the group of people I get to work with every day. People are super hungry, driven, and humble. They join because they want to make students’ lives better. Garrett (the CEO) is absolutely *relentless* in seeking out the best people, and building relationships with them for years until he can convince them to join. I have a lot of fun getting to work with this team! - Personal Growth & Impact. The reason I’ve stayed at Handshake for so long is how invested they are in my personal growth. Every time I’ve gotten even a little bit bored, I’m able to have that conversation transparently and figure out new ways to stretch myself / increase my impact. Every 6 months when I look back on the previous 6, I’m pretty blown away by what the team has accomplished and how much my role has evolved.
Kontras
The biggest “cons” of working at Handshake are pretty much what you’d expect for a company growing at the rate we are, and the complexity of the marketplace we’re in: - Can be super stressful: I sometimes feel like I’m tow-ing the line between ‘good stress / feeling of impact’, and ‘oh wow, how am I handling this right now??’ I personally kind of like that… but I wouldn’t join if it’s not for you. - Difficult to scale communication, transparency, culture: we’ve definitely gone through cycles of growing pains around these three areas. There are certain weeks where it feels like everything is breaking, and then we focus on updating our processes, and then things are great again… pretty standard, but gives you that ‘start-up roller coaster’ feeling.