Why You Should Work for a Tech Start-Up in 2018

Why You Should Work for a Tech Start-Up

From machine learning and AI to intelligent mobility and IoT, there are many exciting career routes for programmers, developers and IT pros looking for a move into new technologies. Often, however, these emerging fields are difficult to get into without good project experience. Start-ups could offer the answer.

Start-ups Fuel Technological Development

Trends in technical skills are driven by organisations forging forward with new ideas and, more often than not, you’ll see this happen at startup level as they adopt new technologies faster. The larger organisations will often look to these smaller, agile companies for the lead in new developments and direction – and in many cases, will either directly support their growth or buy out the successful ones.

You only need to look around at the increase in accelerator programmes for evidence of that:

Digital Catapult has launched a three-year business accelerator programme, the Machine Intelligence Garage, to support artificial intelligence (AI) startups.

BMW has accepted five more startups to its Lab Accelerator programme, as it seeks to boost innovation.

Data Pitch, the EU funded three-year accelerator programme, supports data-led start-ups throughout Europe and supports data sharing and collaboration for faster success

These programmes, and others like them, help start-ups to reduce the barriers to growth by supplying computational power, data and skills that these smaller businesses simply don’t have the resource to access alone. This not only maximises chances of success for the start-up – it also reduces the risk (and ups the interest-level) for IT pros looking for a career move into a faster-moving environment.

The Benefits of Working for a Tech Startup

There are many other benefits to working for fast-growing, tech start-ups, too.

Choice: Firstly, you’ll find there are a lot to choose from. It doesn’t take much for a company to get off the ground and yes, some won’t survive, but you’ll have the choice of many interesting projects.

Innovation: Take a look at the Data Pitch programme and you’ll see a range of applications being used for some exciting developments. From machine-learning algorithms that measure male fertility, to predictive maintenance algorithms for car repairs, and machine-learning retail inventory management systems that predict retail trends – you’ll be involved in some world-changing tech.

Financial: The aim of the game here is to get experience and, if your start-up is one of the many that grow fast and successfully, you could be in for a big financial kick-back from shares in the company, too.

Culture: Start-up culture can be refreshing too. You’ll work hard and it will be fast-paced but there will be many new working practices and relaxed environments that can be shaped to suit its small teams.

Experience: You could also find that you start in one area but quickly move into another. It’s not unusual for IT pros to find themselves wearing lots of hats in a start-up, which brings an added benefit of greater, company-wide visibility and variety in the role – which all goes into the pot of experience.

If that sounds appealing, take a look at the latest tech jobs in start-ups to see if they spark a new career interest. It could turn out to be the best move you’ve ever made.