Ditch the Deferred Life Plan: Secure Your Dream Startup Role Now!

JOB SEARCH STRATEGY
Deferred Passion is Killing Your Job Search.

There is a trap you may not realize you’re falling into, and it’s killing your chances of landing the role you want.

It’s called the Deferred Life Plan.

What It Is.

Before digging into how the deferred life plan kills your chances of getting hired and what you can do about it, let’s define it.

What is a “deferred life plan”?

A Deferred Life Plan is putting off what you really want to do because you believe what you need to do today is what’s expected of you. Often, you are feeling pulled to something that lights a fire inside of you, something you just won’t shut up about. But instead of pursuing that, you opt for the more “practical” or “secure” options.

Partner at Kleiner Perkins, Randy Komisar, put it perfectly in an interview…

What It Looks Like.

I guarantee you have heard these statements or statements like them around the (virtual) water cooler, at a dinner party, or while out with friends.

I really want to do [THEIR DREAM] but because [A MANUFACTURED REASON] I’m not doing that right away. Instead, I’m going to do [THE SAFE/FAMILIAR/MORE FINANCIALLY LUCRATIVE PATH] first and then do [THEIR DREAM].

It’s the banker who has dreams of opening a bakery… someday.

It’s the marketing manager who wants to get into operations… someday.

It’s the oil and gas professional who wants to work on clean-tech… someday.

Here are some examples you may have heard.

You may have said some of them yourself…

• 🧸 Deferred Life For Ease: “I love ed-tech startups, but my background is in transportation, so I’ll go for transportation jobs because it’ll be easier. Once I land my next transportation role, I can start working towards a job in ed-tech.”

• 💰Deferred Life For Money: “My life's work is to build rockets, so I will make $100M trading cryptocurrency with my crypto hedge fund because I don't want to worry about money. Then I’ll go found a rocket startup.”

• 😎 Deferred Life For Standards: “I’m in Operations, but I want to be like David, our Chief Product Officer. I can’t take a step back in responsibility or pay to get there, so I’ll tough it out in Ops and see if I can get exposure to Product down the road.”

• 👵🏻 Deferred Life For Others Perceptions: “I really want to apply to that startup, but my family is all doctors. My Mom and Dad would kill me… not to mention my Grandma!”

Why It’s Killing Your Job Search.

You’re Not Committed

If your actions lead you in one direction, but your energy, passion, and heart lead you in another, you won’t be fully committed to either. That will lead to a mediocre outcome at best. The odds of everything working out in exactly the way you want it to and you getting to do the thing you really want to do at the exact time you want to do it are almost zero.

Chasing “Hot” Industries

First, you apply to companies in web3, then crypto, then gaming, then AI, then [insert next hot industry]. But you’re not stopping to ask yourself if you believe in and are passionate about the underlying technology and problem being solved. You should be interested in the industries where you want to work. But you’re not obsessively reading about top companies in that area, listening to podcast interviews with industry founders. Instead, you find yourself quickly losing interest. This leads to applying to companies in vastly different industries, developing different versions of your story that make sense of why this job is perfect for you, and having ten versions of your resume. Lots of work for little compounding results.

Others Can Tell

Homo Sapiens have been around for 300,000 years. Over those hundreds of thousands of years, we have developed a keen sense of when someone isn’t telling the truth. If there’s a sliver of doubt in the hiring manager's mind in your genuine interest, it can cost you the job. I can’t tell you the number of interview debriefs I have been in where one of the panelists has said, “I don’t think they’re actually interested in working here.“ No one wants to work at a startup with someone who’s half-in. In startups, it’s all in or out because everything is riding on you and the team.

No One’s Rooting For You

One of the fastest ways to land your next role is to get other people to believe in where you’re going and help you along the way. If they know the next role is just a box you’re checking to buy you some time until you can do the thing you really want to do, they will be less likely to help you. They don’t want to be the person who recommended you as a hire only to have you bounce to something else.

Your Preparation Becomes A Chore

In the job search, the separation is in the preparation. Remember when you were in school studying for a test you didn’t care about? It’s awful. On the flip side, remember when you were working on a project you loved and did extra work for extra credit, not because you needed to but because you wanted to? That likely didn’t seem like any effort at all. That’s the difference passion can make. You’re willing to go the extra mile to stand out and take advantage of the opportunity not because you need to but because you want to.

What You Can Do Instead.

At this point, it should be clear that a deferred life plan will kill a job search.

But what can you do instead?

Be Honest With Yourself

Take an honest look at your wants, needs, and dreams. It’s completely okay to want to make $100M. It’s completely okay to want to have a work-life balance. It’s completely okay to want to work in a different industry. It’s completely okay to want to be a COO, CEO, or founder. But make sure you’re pursuing what YOU want, not what you think you SHOULD want. If you’re honest with yourself, commit to what you’re most passionate about, and give yourself a long enough time horizon, you can’t fail.

Be Patient

Anything is achievable with a long enough time horizon as long as you’re committed. So, set a goal and stick to it. If you have been honest with yourself and have a strong enough “why” you’ll be able to push through rejections and inevitable tough times ahead. Social media will make you think everyone’s career is full of constant wins. In reality, the ones who have won just stayed in the game. This is why understanding what you truly want is so important.

Find Others Who Have Walked The Path

If you don’t know the way or are an outsider, the best way to find a clear path forward is to find people who have done it before. LinkedIn Search is a great tool to do this. Find people who had your previous title and now have the title you want. Find people who worked for your previous company and now work in your dream industry. Remove your ego, reach out, and ask them for advice they wish they would have known when transitioning or pursuing the goal.

Tune Out The Noise

The deferred life plan is the common plan. That’s because everyone is “shoulding” all over themselves. Worry about yourself and what you want to do, and don’t listen to the haters along the path pulling you towards the easy way out. People don’t like it when others change around them because it shines a light on everything they want to do but aren’t doing. They’re likely just jealous you have the guts to pursue your passion.

Want to go deeper?

Here are some resources you can use to go deeper into this subject.

Additional Resources

• WATCH: Open AI’s Sam Altman doesn’t believe in the deferred life plan

• WATCH: Randy Komisar on optimizing career and life opportunities

• WATCH: Randy Komisar with a cautionary word on the deferred life plan

• READ: The Monk and the Riddle: The Art of Creating A Life While Making A Living by Randy Komisar

OPEN ROLES
Who’s Hiring?

Main Street Health

• What They Do: Main Street Health is the nation’s largest provider of value-based care focused exclusively on serving rural America.

• Total Raised To Date: $342M

• Series: A

• Number of Employees: 500

• Last Raise: $315M

• Last Raise Date: October 8, 2023

• Where the $’s Going: To expand into eight more states in 2024.

• Open Roles? Yes

• Pitchbook Success Probability: 97% Success

• Pitchbook Likely Exit Type: M&A

Verkada

• What They Do: Verkada offers product lines of video security cameras, access control, environmental sensors, alarms, workplace, and intercoms, integrated with a single cloud-based software platform designed with simplicity and scalability in real-time insight into the safety and comfort of people throughout their physical environment.

• Total Raised To Date: $454.8M

• Series: D

• Number of Employees: 2024

• Last Raise: $305M

• Last Raise Date: October 9, 2023

• Where the $’s Going: To support ambitious expansion plans, enhancements to current offerings, new product development, and growing their global team.

• Open Roles? Yes

• Pitchbook Success Probability: 98% Success

• Pitchbook Likely Exit Type: IPO

Pair Eyewear

• What They Do: Pair Eyewear is a direct-to-consumer eyewear brand intended to offer quality, affordable and customizable glasses to people.

• Total Raised To Date: $148.15M

• Series: C

• Number of Employees: 160

• Last Raise: $75M

• Last Raise Date: October 10, 2023

• Where the $’s Going: To enhance the company's automated U.S. manufacturing technology and accelerate its global expansion plans.

• Open Roles? Yes

• Pitchbook Success Probability: 98% Success

• Pitchbook Likely Exit Type: M&A

So there you have it, why the deferred life plan could be killing your job search.

Do you want to defer your life plans and hope that everything goes your way so that one day, you’ll be able to enjoy yourself?

Or do you want to be truly excellent and thrive at a job you enjoy in an industry you’re passionate about today?

As Academy Award winning director James Cameron says, “Hope is not a strategy. Luck is not a factor. Fear is not an option.”

Don’t leave the enjoyment and success of your life and career up to hope.

Let’s become career champions together 🏆

Kyle

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