This page is a philosophy & step-by-step process on recruiting for tech/startups/web3 roles. Made by Luke Clancy & Antony Silvetti-Schmitt
Breaking into web3: https://guidetoweb3.xyz/
Finding Opportunities
Increase your surface area of luck
- You need to be on Tech Twitter - click here to learn why
- Learn/Build In Public - share what you’re working on /learning to send signals to people/opportunities aligned with you (THIS WORKS)
- Create your profile - use Luke’s Twitter as an example, also check out this tweet
- Build your own binge bank - When people find you, they can go down a Rabbithole. Make it easy for people to know who you are and what you’re about.
- Subscribe to these newsletters to learn about startups/VCs in the space
- Milk Road (funding friday edition)
- Accelerated - internships section at the bottom
- Startup Search - the weekly newsletter sends startup & VC opportunities
- Join communities of people in tech
Ex: Join the Acquired slack channel
As you post on Twitter, more communities will come.
- Find Head Recruiters of Cool Companies
- Find which companies recruit heavily out of UIUC
- Find the email to the head recruiter at said companies
- Cold email them and say you are interested in a couple positions and would love to learn more about them at said company through a quick 15 minute call. Say you want to learn more and are asking for help.
- Then ask to get connected with people in those positions and send them emails and ask for quick calls to learn more what they do
- Apply to a position at the company and go through the interview process
- Look At Job Boards
Crypto Jobs/Internships
Look at the portfolio companies of VCs
Pursuing The Opportunity
- Cold DM/email people in the industry
The Cold Email Guide - Sahil Bloom
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Cold Email Guide - 1517 Fund
Seizing The Opportunity
Job hunt > job search
- Provide Value First
Connect people together. By providing value without the expectation of receiving it, they are more likely to help you out
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Check this out. By intro’ing these two together, I provide immediate value to them and continue to build our relationship.
- Advice for the call
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- How has working on the buy side enabled you to work with a high diversity of companies?
- How can one best develop an investor's mindset?
- Are you ever given any operational tasks, or given opportunities to work directly with PortCos?
- What is one company characteristic you look for in all of your potential investments?
- How has working on the buyside helped develop your qualitative analytical skills?
- Why did you choose (PE/VC) over another investing-based careers?
- For people coming from banking:
- How has being on the sell-side prepared you for the buy-side
- What skill have translated over
- Is there a certain industry your firm focuses on?
- How does your strategy vary from other PE/VC firms?
- Why XYZ firm?
- Almost every IB question also applies to PE/VC
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- When you need to learn about a new tool or library, where do you go for help?
- What does collaboration look like on your team?
- How have you been able to take ownership? Can you tell me about a time where you helped decide the direction of a project?
- What have been your favorite projects that you’ve worked on on this team or at this company?
- Whatever I do, I always want to be learning something new. In what ways has your position helped you learn and grow?
- What does collaboration with other teams/roles look like? For instance, how do you work with PMs or designers?
- What led you to where you are now with your role at this company?
- As a __(woman)__ in technology, diversity is really important to me. What steps has your company/team made to improve diversity?
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- How did you get into PM? (PM is a newer role than others, so many people moved into it from different paths such as SWE, Eng. Manager, Consulting, MBAs, etc.)
- What qualities and skills do the best PMs have?
- What’s your favorite/the coolest/the most impactful product/feature you’ve launched?
- What is unique about how ____ treats the product/product lifecycle compared to other companies?
- How involved are users in your product development cycle? (Ask about user feedback and research)
- What scope of influence does a PM have at (the level you’re applying for)? What about at your/higher levels?
- Who do you work with most as a PM at ___? (Can get into more specific collaboration with other groups such as engineers, designers, data scientists, etc.)
- How did you figure out what type of product you enjoyed working on most? Does ___ help PMs explore different products and find their best fit?
Application Phase
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- 1 page
- Consistent formatting (spacing, dates, fonts . . . etc)
- Action verbs in the description of the role
- Examples
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- Structure
- Who you are, what you are studying, what are you applying for
- Why your previous experiences make you a good fit for THIS ROLE (role is more important that company)
- Why this company?
- 1 page max
- As a rule of thumb, the smaller the company, the more important the cover letter
- If you care about the job, submit a cover letter
- BE YOURSELF. Highlight your strengths, but don’t come off as a robot. You don’t love assembly, excel, and powerpoint, you’re not fooling yourself or the recruiter. You like what those tools help you build
- Examples
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- Put as much time into the application as you care about the company. If you care about a company, take the time to create a thoughtful, personalized application. For “meh” companies, just get the application in. There are practically unlimited “meh” companies. They aren’t worth your creative brainpower and there will always be another to apply to.
🧩 Simplify.jobs for job search + application autofill
Interview Phase
Congratulations, you’ve made it past the screening. You get a chance to prove that you are more than just a number 😃.
Behavioral Interview
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- How do you diversify yourself?
- Describe the time you worked the hardest and felt the greatest sense of achievement.
- How do you go about developing rapport (relationship) with individuals at work or in a leadership role?
- How did you motivate and keep members accountable for delivering high quality results?
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- How do you handle a difficult team member?
- Tell me about a time when you received negative or constructive feedback? How did you handle the situation?
- (Tell me about a time when you worked with someone who had a very different perspective or style from you. How did that change your outlook? How do you do things differently now, based on that experience?)
- Tell me about a time when you had to communicate a vision to engage and unite team members around a common purpose?
- What role do you play in a team setting?
- Tell me a time you took a different role?
- Tell me a time you worked with a client?
- Who is someone better than you in an area that matters to you and how do you approach that?
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- Describe a situation when you faced multiple tasks and deadlines. How did you manage your time and complete the tasks in a timely manner?
- Tell me about a time where you were frustrated or impatient with a team member or coworker. What did you do and how did you react?
- Tell me a time you had to deliver bad news?
- What would you do if you were asked to do a task that you didn't know how to do?
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- If you were to put a business in union what would it be and why?
- We have all had times when we just could not get everything done on time. Tell me about a time that this happened to you. What did you do?
- Looking at your resume I can see that you have a lot on your plate. How in the world do you keep track of it all and make best use of your time?
- When is a time you had to do research and what did you find from that research?
- What classes have you taken that would prepare you for this job?
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- Name a time that you went above and beyond what was expected of you?
- Tell me about a time when you made a decision and later found that it was wrong. How did you react? What did you learn from it?
- Has there ever been a time where you were put on a project and had to go against what a superior has told you? What was the result of that conversation?
- Customer privacy is very important to us. What would you do if you saw an employee talking about private customer information with another employee?
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- I see that you are really involved with __ company on your resume. What do you see in our company that brings you to interview with us today?
- Tell me about a time that you used research to solve a problem?
- What motivates you?
- What is something not on your resume that you are particularly proud of?
- So you say that you are into new technology, what is something new in the marketplace that I haven’t heard of yet?
- What sets you apart from other candidates?
- Why should we not hire you?
- If you were an animal what would you be any why?
- What is something strange about you that your friends would tell us?
- What is one of your interests outside of school and how do you pursue it?
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- Talk about a time when you used technology to further a group?
- Tell me your favorite piece of technology and why?
- What is your favorite newest piece of technology?
- Three products that could be improved and how to improve them?
- What defines a good tech product?
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- They may describe a current news topic and ask how you would handle it based on the position your applying for?
- Where do you get your news from?
- Tell me about a recent M&A transaction you have read about?
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Technical Interview
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- Pains me to say it, but companies will ask LeetCode style questions (or equivalent for different roles) to evaluate you. Whether or not this is fair is another question, the fact of the matter is they will ask you these questions and you should be prepared.
- SWE: LeetCode 75 🙃
- Quant: Just look up quant practice problems, or use this book
- System Design: No clue
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- Companies really want to see that you can think and communicate clearly. If you do this well you will differentiate yourself from most candidates.