If you want to work in start-ups, Chicago is one of the best places to be.
There’s a great sense of intellectual vitality there. When I speak with other people here, I don’t necessarily have to explain what an advertising network is, for example. That’s a huge plus for people working in specialized industries.
Now, if you wanted to work in Chicago, but you went to Harvard Business School, you might have trouble breaking into the local start-up scene.
I ran into a friend from Harvard the other day. He’s from Chicago and wanted to work in Chicago, but because he went to HBS, he had difficulty finding job offers in Chicago.
He told me, “If I had known what I know now, I would have just gone to Booth, because I knew I wanted to work in Chicago, and the Booth network there is just stronger.”
Even a Harvard Business School alumnus wasn’t able to get around the regional hiring biases.
Basically, if you want to work in Silicon Valley, Boston, LA, Austin, or any other major start-up hub, you should go to business school in that location. If you do that, your school’s alumni network will help your job search significantly.
1. Starting with a Geographic Focus
Most people start their internship search with a geographic focus. The best place for you to concentrate your efforts is the area surrounding your school.
I applied to a Silicon Valley start-up, so my Chicago Booth network wasn’t nearly as important as my Stanford undergrad network. Applying for a position in an area far from your school will always be at least somewhat more difficult than focusing nearby.
A lot of my friends at Chicago Booth were able to land internships at start-up companies significantly earlier than I was able to land my Silicon Valley internship. That’s because their local network is so powerful.
Your business school will also give you access to a lot of companies who recruit students on-campus.
Personally, I find that truly exciting internship opportunities don’t come to you. You have to seek them out.
2. Finding Startups Through Investors
It is a venture capital firm’s job to know the details of new companies and whether they have potential.
If you have any contacts with any investors, you should be able to find people who can refer you to different notable startups. A lot of people I know were introduced to their companies through investors like Angel Investors or Venture Capital Investors.
3. Student Groups
Your business school, even your undergrad school, should have a different student groups dedicated to different business fields. There should be a high tech student group, a venture capital student group, an entrepreneurship group, and other useful business groups.
You can often find job listings compiled by your student group, which can give you a lot of good leads in terms of locating a great startup company.
1. Private Equity Newsletters
If you want to stay on top of basic startup developments and keep an eye out for interesting new companies to work for, you should sign up for some of the startup-focused newsletters.
One great newsletter that focuses on startups and private equity is peHUB (Private Equity Hub). It’s a daily email newsletter that talks about the different new companies out there. They write a lot about which companies have recently received financing. There’s a quick blurb about the company, their location, what they do, and which investors are backing them.
I monitored newsletters like that and researched different companies that seemed particularly interesting.
2. Looking Up Startups Through Investment Portfolios
You can also research notable startups by going to the websites of top tier venture capital firms and looking at what companies they have in their portfolios. I’d write down any companies that were relevant to my areas of interest and then added them to my list.
After doing your main startup research, you should then take a look at your list of companies, look back over their details and narrow your list down to at most 10 companies. Of those companies, you should probably focus on only 4 or 5 of them, so you’re not spreading yourself too thin.
In terms of actually getting an interview with these companies, you can email or call them directly by looking up their contact information. Some of them will even have application instructions set up and displayed on their website.
Maybe you’ll get the interview you want; maybe none of them will reply back. Either way, it’s up to you to keep the job search process going.
