PS#028: The Interview Series – Show Them the Job Description

As many of my students can attest, I’m a big fan of avoiding competition. 

If you can avoid a competitive interview process and create an exclusive opportunity for yourself, I believe that’s the best route for securing a role in venture capital.

However, I am also a realist. 

I recognize that many of you will find yourself in competitive interview processes.

Well, even in these situations, I have a method for differentiating yourself from other candidates. 

Today, I’m going to discuss a process I call, “Show them the job description.”

The job description.

Most interview processes, at the outset, will include submitting a resume, cover letter, and potentially answering a few questions.

The idea is that these items will help the interviewer get a better understanding of your skill set and decide if you’re a good fit for the role.

I think this is a wildly outdated process.

How are you supposed to understand someone’s skill set from a resume and cover letter? How are you supposed to see if they have what it takes?

I don’t know. It’s beyond me.

Good news, you don’t have to do it this way. You can take control of the interview process.

For just about every role, a firm will provide the job description alongside any specified requirements. In this part (as with any other job), the company will tell you EXACTLY what they need you to do on the job. 

All you need to do is show them that you can do those things.

How to show them.

Below, I’ve included a sample job description. It outlines all the activities (and skills) that an associate will need to perform in the role. 

Let’s walk through this example and how we might apply this approach.

Responsibilities for the Associate role include:

Sourcing investment opportunities – Associates play a key role in uncovering investment opportunities through meeting and networking with founders and teams (direct outreach, attending conferences, demo days, meet-ups, etc.) Successful associates are an integral part of their ecosystem and develop deep relationships with entrepreneurs, fellow investors, and relevant industry executives.

I think the best way to demonstrate your sourcing capabilities is to build out an investment thesis and identify 50-100 startups that would be relevant to the firm in question. I’ve included a set-by-step guide for doing so here. It’s important to make sure this is done in a form or medium that can be shared with your interviewer (i.e., a presentation, memo, excel, etc.). 

From here, I would be prepared to discuss a few of the best opportunities in the interview discussions. And, if you really want to take it to the next level, I would be prepared to make introductions to the startups that you’ve identified.

Evaluating potential investments – Associates are critical in driving investment diligence, working with lead partners to answer key questions and frame any opportunities for review by our investment committee. Diligence often centers on questions around market dynamics, competitive landscape, and customer traction.

For this part of the job description, I would provide an example diligence plan for one of the startups that I had identified earlier. I would outline the key risks I’d need to understand and how I would go about understanding them. To be even more specific, I would build out market sizing analysis, competitive landscapes, etc. for the company in question.

If you’d like to take this even further, I would take a few of the investments that the firm has already made and build out similar materials. This way I‘d be able to have a thoughtful conversation with the investor about their deals and investment decision process.     

Supporting portfolio companies – The real work often begins after the investment. Associates partner closely with portfolio companies and help founders with business development, financial planning, fundraising, opportunistic M&A, hiring, and more.  

While recognizing that you’re still early in your career, there are ways to show that you can help out potential portfolio companies. I would choose one of the firm’s portfolio companies and present an example for how we (the firm) could help the startup. You could also share examples of work you’ve done previously, such as sharing a startup financial model. 

Why does this work?

The students who I’ve seen use this type of approach have landed jobs in VC (myself included).

Why? Because you’ve taken the guesswork out of the hiring process, you’re doing the work.

I can’t think of a better way to demonstrate that you can do the job then by doing the job.

Theoretically, most venture interview processes (probably most interview processes in general) are designed to test the skills for the job. The problem is that not everyone gets that chance. You might get filtered out too early in the process.  

If you can demonstrate that you can do the job by building out examples of the work, you’ll differentiate yourself from other candidates who are simply following the process.

It’s that simple. Build out the items described in the job description (e.g., investment theses, competitive landscapes, market sizings, financial models, returns analysis, etc.) and share them with the interviewer/firm.

This will give you the edge in those competitive processes.