5 tips for growing your startup tech career

We spoke with Krishna Subramanian, cofounder, president and COO of software startup Komprise, about tips for advancing your tech career at a startup.

August 21, 2023

By

SDxCentral Staff

Esther Shein

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Working at a startup can be an exciting proposition given that most of these young businesses are already digital and looking for skilled technologists to help them scale. Startups also offer individuals several benefits, such as the opportunity to learn on the job while playing a role in helping a company be successful.

These are heady days for IT professionals. Even as the economy remains uncertain, some positions are still in demand. Case in point: AI engineers — which have become the most in-demand jobs with 109% growth in the past three months, according to LinkedIn — as well as data scientists, software developers, cybersecurity specialists and analytics roles.

Tech professionals can also grow their skills working at startups. SDxCentral spoke with Krishna Subramanian, cofounder, president and COO of data management software startup Komprise, about tips for advancing your tech career at a startup. Subramanian has built three successful venture-backed IT businesses and held senior positions at companies including Sun Microsystems and Citrix.

[Ed. note: The following interview with Subramanian has been edited for length .]

Tip #1: Be authentic

Early in my career when I was raising venture capital for our first company, in the late 1990s, an advisor recommended I raise my voice and act aggressively when delivering the pitch so the investors would take me seriously. I realized this was heartfelt advice, given by someone who was concerned that the men in the room would not know how to evaluate my leadership capabilities unless I conformed to their stereotypes of leadership. Yet, I have found this well-meaning knee-jerk reaction to be untrue.

It’s better to be authentic, play to your strengths and highlight your core values rather than trying to conform to male-centric stereotypes of effective leadership. If you are an aggressive, outspoken person by nature, then use those skills to your advantage in meetings. If you are more soft-spoken or introverted, you can still be an excellent leader without brandishing your sword.

Tip #2: Find your passion

I am passionate about what I do, and my success has been due to the people who have recognized that passion and commitment. If it’s early in your career, figure out what you are truly passionate about and what your strengths are by taking on different roles.

I know some companies look for particular skills or backgrounds or areas of expertise — and those things matter — but we, above all, look for passion in a person and whether they have a fundamental understanding of concepts. We also seek people who are willing to learn and grow. The reason is today maybe AI [artificial intelligence] is hot, but tomorrow, security is hot and after that something else.

Demonstrate that you’re willing to be trained and put in the effort and commitment to making that happen. So the biggest marketable skills are showing you can pick up new concepts and can adapt, and the second is you know how to play on a team.

Those are universal skills that will stand the test of time.

Tip #3: Stay current with your skills

What is fascinating is the pace of change, especially in the last few months with the amount of progress we’re making in areas like generative AI. Some of the questions startups will ask are, “How can you leverage the skills you’re bringing in, and are you open to keeping current on what’s changing?” People have to be a lot more adaptable.

You can do that by seeking out opportunities where you can leverage your strengths and take on difficult projects or tasks or contribute to something you know — perhaps it is helping the company improve the code base or build something — so you can showcase your achievements. Take initiative. If you’re at a startup and you don’t take the initiative you will not advance.

Work on your soft skills as well as the technical ones. Maybe you don’t have a data science background but you have to use AI bots, so start tinkering with them. That gives you an anchor to build from.

Tip #4: Consider becoming a specialist

If you’re a software developer, there are two career paths you can follow. One is managing people; you can become a leader of a group or a vice president. As you advance, you will have more people working for you.

The other path in software engineering is technical — becoming a lead architect, distinguished engineer or CTO. You may want to become an expert in one area. Maybe you’re reviewing other people’s designs.

In our company, for example, we have an infrastructure team and a human interface team focused on user interface and the experiential aspects of our company. So you absolutely have specialty teams.

It’s good to have unique knowledge that’s part of the core intellectual property of a startup. You can’t just say “I know how to do UI programming using” whatever the framework is and “I’m not going to learn anything new.” It’s better if you’re a specialist than just a generalist.

Tip #5: Certifications matter but they’re no longer paramount

It used to be extremely important to take a course and get certified. I’m not saying they’re not important any longer, but in today’s world there’s so much available on YouTube or Udemy or Coursera — there’s a staggering amount of opportunities for self-learning. Pick up a project on GitHub and experiment with it. You don’t need only certifications.