I finally registered just to show my full support over this comment. I found the title to be more of a link-bait than anything else. While I agree with the article that joining a startup is not exactly secure work, but what is? Joining a startup does generally have a lucrative personal growth opportunities and within the company itself. So yes, it should be called "career".
"Career" has become the formal version of "job" anyway. I would be wholly unsurprised if A/B testing showed that applicants for "career" are more experienced on average.
I get the point(s) - I think, but. . .careers don't have to be within one company. And these days, they rarely are. Also, once you're a few years out from your multiple start-up jobs, you may see how some hard or soft skill you acquired has contributed/is contributing to your career progression. Several years ago, I looked around at my peers in my current job and thought. . .I really was on a career path (though it was not particarly planned and it spanned a number of organizations and industries); I really do have more breadth and depth of knowledge and experience than I thought; even though I feel that my talents are often wasted, I really am viewed as more senior than I thought (salary ranges here are an open secret, if you know how/where to look). . .
Good point. "Imposter syndrome" is definitely a thing.
I think a lot about the hyphenated person these days (i.e. artist-programmer-writer-marketer-lover). Your point about retroactively realizing that you were on a path is a good one - my point here is that the notion of a "careers page" implies that you know where the hell you're going... or at least that working for startup X is a natural step along that path.
Most people, plainly, do not (or companies, for that matter), know where the hell they're going. Diving into the startup world is a great way to find that out--FAST. And that's definitely not a bad thing.
But 'career' is too loaded a word, IMHO, to capture all of this..
Actually, now that I think about it the foundation of the OP's case against the naming could be flawed.
From my perspective a career is made up of a number of jobs done through the life of that type of work. For a marketer it would be a few or many marketing jobs.
The perception for a potential future employee that a new job/gig/etc. with a start-up or a larger company is a good addition to building this foundation and progress in their career as a marketer/writer/programmer/etc. is an important image.
And hence start-ups should definitely continue calling it a career page.
The only exception is if the start-up believes that it is going to hurt the recruits career.
Also, I have never heard the word security associated with career as in "Career Security"; Job Security on the other is thrown around all the time.
Working for a start-up is a career opportunity, no matter how short the duration.
Most people who join start-up companies, have long term goals to start something later on in life, and the experience you get from working on almost all aspects of the business, and take part in critical decision making is highly invaluable in this regard.
Some people just like the excitement that comes with the uncertainty, and if all things fail, you can always get another job or start something if you are adventurous.
This post appears to come from a Sales (or businessy) person who tend to prefer a stable environment as against risk and excitement imo.
Author, please stop taking words so literally. This isn't that complicated. If I'm on a startups website and I want to apply for a job there I will look for two words. Those words are "jobs" and "careers" and to me (and probably most) they mean the same damn thing. Nobody arrives at a website and sees careers and automatically thinks anything you talked about.
I think calling it "careers" is much nicer than calling it "jobs."
Nobody is staying at jobs for 10-15 years anymore. You should be switching jobs every 3-5 years to refresh your skillset and stay updated. The days of working for Kodak for 40 years and then retiring are over.
I don't think you necessarily should be switching. . .depending on the company, you may be able to refresh and update by simply transferring to a different team or project. But yes, the reality is that, for most of us, that's what we need to do.
The college I went to had an online job posting board, I would check it weekly. Often there would be some startup on the careers page with the Title: "Rock Star Code Monkey Ninja wanted - Start your Career"
This is unfortunately an anti-thesis to the OPs opinion. I am guessing this was not your intention.
He talks of a "career" page. As in the title. The only time this matters is if you are already on their website.
If this was an obscure start-up, the reason you'd land on that page would be because something about them made you go to their website.
Now ask yourself this, when you visit a website would you prefer them calling the page with their job listings a gigs page, jobs page, job listing page or careers page?
I haven't quite formed an opinion on the authors point yet, but to answer your question I wen't over to angel.co[0] and checked the websites for the first three featured jobs and out of those two call it a career.
I dont have a posting but there was one company that always had the title "Ignite your career."
I found out later the average turnaround was 6 months. Glad I turned down that job. Out of 5 classmates that chose them, only one was working 9 months later.
[+] [-] sjtgraham|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rdudek|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dominotw|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] reginaldjcooper|12 years ago|reply
"Career" has become the formal version of "job" anyway. I would be wholly unsurprised if A/B testing showed that applicants for "career" are more experienced on average.
[+] [-] rfnslyr|12 years ago|reply
Absolutely incredible.
[+] [-] RougeFemme|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rmcfeeley|12 years ago|reply
I think a lot about the hyphenated person these days (i.e. artist-programmer-writer-marketer-lover). Your point about retroactively realizing that you were on a path is a good one - my point here is that the notion of a "careers page" implies that you know where the hell you're going... or at least that working for startup X is a natural step along that path.
Most people, plainly, do not (or companies, for that matter), know where the hell they're going. Diving into the startup world is a great way to find that out--FAST. And that's definitely not a bad thing.
But 'career' is too loaded a word, IMHO, to capture all of this..
[+] [-] bushido|12 years ago|reply
From my perspective a career is made up of a number of jobs done through the life of that type of work. For a marketer it would be a few or many marketing jobs.
The perception for a potential future employee that a new job/gig/etc. with a start-up or a larger company is a good addition to building this foundation and progress in their career as a marketer/writer/programmer/etc. is an important image.
And hence start-ups should definitely continue calling it a career page.
The only exception is if the start-up believes that it is going to hurt the recruits career.
Also, I have never heard the word security associated with career as in "Career Security"; Job Security on the other is thrown around all the time.
[+] [-] n008|12 years ago|reply
Most people who join start-up companies, have long term goals to start something later on in life, and the experience you get from working on almost all aspects of the business, and take part in critical decision making is highly invaluable in this regard.
Some people just like the excitement that comes with the uncertainty, and if all things fail, you can always get another job or start something if you are adventurous.
This post appears to come from a Sales (or businessy) person who tend to prefer a stable environment as against risk and excitement imo.
[+] [-] arasmussen|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rmcfeeley|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lauradhamilton|12 years ago|reply
Nobody is staying at jobs for 10-15 years anymore. You should be switching jobs every 3-5 years to refresh your skillset and stay updated. The days of working for Kodak for 40 years and then retiring are over.
[+] [-] RougeFemme|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wil421|12 years ago|reply
Guess which ones didnt receive my resume?
[+] [-] bushido|12 years ago|reply
He talks of a "career" page. As in the title. The only time this matters is if you are already on their website.
If this was an obscure start-up, the reason you'd land on that page would be because something about them made you go to their website.
Now ask yourself this, when you visit a website would you prefer them calling the page with their job listings a gigs page, jobs page, job listing page or careers page?
Which one would you look for?
[+] [-] joelrunyon|12 years ago|reply
I've never seen this on any startup site I've looked at. Typically they're labeled "jobs" or "work with/for us."
[+] [-] davidw|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] the_watcher|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bushido|12 years ago|reply
[0] https://angel.co/ [1] http://www.nimble.com/company/careers/ [2] https://poptip.com/careers/
[+] [-] taybin|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rmcfeeley|12 years ago|reply
http://www.knewton.com/careers/ http://www.shopify.com/careers http://www.quirky.com/about/careers
[+] [-] wil421|12 years ago|reply
I found out later the average turnaround was 6 months. Glad I turned down that job. Out of 5 classmates that chose them, only one was working 9 months later.
[+] [-] 3pt14159|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jeremysmyth|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|12 years ago|reply
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