12 years of fencing is what has taught Firat, our work student Growth Analyst, persistence in life. “Whatever you do, you have to do it continuously. That and a little bit of luck in breaking points is all you need,” says Firat.
Did you know that alongside working at 7Learnings, he is a full-time student at Humboldt University?
Firat is our part-time insight deriver and CRM magician. He is hardworking, detail-oriented, analytical, goal-driven, and a self-titled Chief Meme Officer. He is one of the very first working students at 7Learnings. Let’s hear what he says about the unique experience at a growing startup in Berlin.
One of my ex-managers suggested I could be a good fit for a start-up because I’m not too fond of the politics game in the workplace and enjoy presenting my work with memes. Months after, right now, I am in a start-up with a handful of incredibly talented people, and here are my experiences and learnings so far.
It is an insight into what is the trade-off. What you are getting back for giving up on big side benefits, the reputation of a big name, etc. Take it or leave it, reader. 😊
In every job, you have to teach yourself and learn from others all the time. This is the rule. We get an education, but real working scenarios often do not exactly match what we learned in school. And sometimes, we came across things we did not hear about in school at all. In a start-up, self-learning is on another level because it is only a handful amount of people. You usually don’t have somebody in your team that “knows everything” or “been there”, and being a new person in a company, you don’t get to delegate your work, so you are the one who needs to do the execution of the tasks. Hence you have to learn “how to do things” all the time. One day you are learning about marketing funnels, another day, you find yourself coding to build a WebScraper. It can be stressful, but it teaches a lot for sure!
It is not like I worked in companies that do not give their employees autonomy. But here, the stage is actually yours, and the spotlight is on you. You have to make your decisions, be the one who is proposing ideas about your work, and be the one who initiates and leads the process. In short, you own the work, for real. Because, let’s face it, this is a small organization, and they can’t hire dozens of people for one job and split the risk. They are counting on you, and you are counting on them. It is scary with a bright side. You try to see the bigger picture about your work and organization and take action accordingly because it will come to you in the end definitely. Failures and success are much easy to trace back.
Funny enough, nobody. Of course, there are some learnings in business that are applicable to small organizations. Still, you are in this new, innovative business where rules are not written yet. Everybody is, in a way, experimenting, and so do you.
Honestly, I don’t know. The facts support it, but who knows what is the best? Nobody is “been there” before, so we have to discover what is best.
I admit it. I am not the best time manager. But there are also some things coming from the nature of a fast-paced work environment. You might find yourself changing time plans within a week or changing the whole plan. You are at the heart of the competition. Who is better and faster will win, and you don’t want to be the loser. So when you need it, you better be ready to change things.
This is my favorite. Besides your own work, it is fantastic to witness a company that non exist a few years ago creating value and growth. And what is better, what you might know, “executive-level” talks are happening right next to you, with you.
If you are in this huge international corporation, you probably feel that you can keep having your work in that company for a long time if you do your work well. In a small organization, the feeling is a bit different. You see, you have a valid value proposition, you know the effort behind it, but anything can happen anytime. The company did not make it yet; you are still carrying a bigger risk. You want to like the feeling of riding the wave.
It is more fun if you are lucky enough to be in a company with the right culture and good people. Everybody more or less knows everybody, at least the names, and you don’t think too much about if you are being politically correct. You are a bunch of people being together and creating value; that is it. Some may even say it is peaceful.
I think I don’t have to say, experiences may differ a lot from company to company, but.. yeah. I already said it now.
Take care!
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