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How do you find a job as a ex-founder?

5 points by bubblehack3r ↗ HN
I was a founder (and CTO) of a successful startup that was bought out by a medium sized company. I worked there for a while more as a consultant (basically transferring knowledge and supporting my team with the new management) and then it felt time to leave and enjoy my picked fruit. But after a year, I'm looking for a job and I find it an almost impossible task. I'm either over qualified or under qualified.

For example, if I apply to a position of "Director of Engineering", I am usually not qualified enough as my experience is only around 5 years of tech management and only in the startup I founded. Most of this experience is managing a team of under 5 people (later the engineering team grew to 15). But if I would apply to a tech lead position, I am over qualified. I can't apply for any engineering jobs either as I am over qualified for those too (at least so I've been told).

At this point it feels like if I want a job, I have to be a founder again.

4 comments

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nhayfield
It typically takes several hundred applications and dozens of interviews to land a position in the current climate. Just be persistent.
bubblehack3r
So it has nothing to do with my situation? The feedback I received from recruiters is usually the classic "overqualified" speech.
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(comment deleted)
mtzs
It's a very frustrating point in your career, for sure. My suggestion - there are many companies out there that appreciate management experience coming out of intensive startup environments. Leverage your management capabilities combined with your technical expertise and look out for team lead positions either in startups from pre-seed to round A or in larger companies that disparately need new blood eager to make an impact. If you're good, at least within a startup, you'll be climbing up the latter towards group lead / director position in no time.