Not So Fast...

Bob Weinstein is a journalist who covers technology, project management, the workplace and career development.

  Career Development  

Advising job seekers to be careful when choosing a start-up is like warning someone to look both ways before crossing the street. A job at any company is tough enough, but it's doubly hard when the company in question is a start-up.

The idea of taking a job at one can be very seductive. But it can also mean disaster when all hopes and fantasies are squashed when you learn the company is sinking faster than the Titanic. It's out of bucks, it can't pay your salary and you better get another job fast. This story passes on cautionary advice to heed before taking a job at a start-up company.

The biggest mistake is starting out with over-inflated expectations. In the mid- to late-1990s, expectations were just as overestimated on management's part. CEOs discovered too late that they should have done their homework earlier. The upshot was one-out-of-seven start-ups failed and less than one-out-of-10 went public.

Despite these scary statistics, it doesn't mean start-ups never offer fertile career opportunities. Project managers and technical professionals, in general, have an advantage because they can evaluate the technology before seriously considering the company. But don't put too much weight on the technology alone. Great management teams can make a success out of less than …

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