How to get a job in venture capital

A few years ago I wrote a post on how to get a job in venture capital. It was lucky enough to get broad distribution and remains my most viewed and linked to post. I've had a number of questions about it over the years and have tried to respond to people who wrote in to ask my opinion about their VC job search. One of the most common questions I've received runs something like: "I get it - finding a venture job is hard. I still really want to try and I have a 5+ year outlook on this. What should I do during that time to work towards my goal of landing a venture job?"
Of course the real answer depends a lot on the individual asking - where they are in their career and life, where they live, what their educational and work background is, etc. That said, let me try to provide a few ideas.
Go to business school. As much as it pains me to say it the fact is that it's a lot easier to get a job in venture capital if you have a degree from a top business school (pains me not because I don't have many VC friends who attended such schools, but because I have many that have not, and I don't personally feel not having a degree from Harvard should be such a barrier to obtaining a venture job). While there are a lot of reasons to go to all sorts of different business schools and while many very successful venture capitalists have either never been to b-school or didn't attend a top 10 school - if you're intent in attending school is to land a job in VC you are MUCH better off going to a top school. MUCH. I know of several firms that simply won't even consider associate candidates that haven't attended a very short list of top chools (Harvard, Stanford and a few others). In fact, going to a non-top 10 business school could actually hurt your chances vs. not going at all. Not fair, I know (and I didn't attend b-school at all, so who am I to even suggest this) but true.
Work for a start-up. This may seem obvious, but almost no matter what your background if you're trying to build a resume to land in VC, having start-up experience is extremely helpful (preferably from a start-up that ends up well). As a practical matter, it's helpful to have this experience as a VC - it will give you insight on what works and what doesn't in the start-up world; will test whether you really like start-up environment and potentially expose you to venture finance and other areas of company formation and growth that will serve as a helpful backdrop to your venture career. In addition, if your company has institutional investors, you will hopefully get the opportunity to spend some time with your would-be peers which may help jump-start your eventual search (make that happen - its one of the key reasons you took the job working for a start-up in the first place!).
Start a company of your own. If you can't find a start-up you're excited enough about to join, why not start one of your own? Many successful venture capitalists have started their own companies. Its a great way to gain operating experience, test out your technology ideas and, of course, meet venture capitalists.
If you're early in your career (and/or have the inclination), work for a bank or consulting firm. Like going to a top business school, having banking or consulting on your resume is an indicator to potential venture employers that you're smart, aggressive, willing to work hard and well trained. Having been a banker myself at the start of my career I'm not entirely sure these adjectives always apply, but there is clearly a bias in the world of finance towards these types of jobs as training grounds. It will also bring you into contact with people who are likely to have networks that include venture capitalists as well as potentially up your chances of getting into a top school (see the first point above). This is especially true if you're thinking of later stage venture or private equity who - much more so than early stage venture - tend to look kindly on the training one gets in these jobs.
Put yourself out there. Union Square Ventures famously asks potential applicants not to send in a traditional resume, but instead to point to the applicant's various activities around the web (their blog, articles they've authored, companies they are helping out with, etc). While this may be an extreme example of a firm valuing the online presence of potential colleagues (and one that has worked very well for the firm), having a visible profile online that you can reference and point to will be helpful in many a VC job search (especially so if the firms you are seeking employment from invest in these areas, as USV does). Your online activity can and should extend to reading and sometimes (thoughtfully) commenting on the blogs of the now vast list of VCs that write a blog. These sorts of interactions are just one way to start to engage in a conversation with people in the industry you might one day work with.

appendix:How to become a venture capitalist

I get asked this question a lot and while the real answer is “I have absolutely no idea,” I thought I’d make something up here so I at least have a place to send people who ask me this question (as well as anyone else who happens to stumble upon this blog searching for ‘getting a job at a venture capital firm’). This post is for aspiring analysts, associates and principals and has little to do with getting a job as a partner (which I hope to figure out one day too . . .)

Step one: Assume you will not be able to land a job as a venture capitalist. This is the realistic outcome of trying to get a job as a VC. I imagine the market is a little bit better in places like Palo Alto, but here in Denver I can count on one hand the number of VC jobs that have opened up since I joined Mobius in 2001. Only a couple (I’m thinking about 2 at the moment, but there may be a few others) actually went to people who weren’t already in the industry. Even in larger VC markets (specifically the Bay Area and Boston) there are many more people who are actively looking to get into the VC world than there are positions open.

Step two: Understand the math. It’s critical to understand how VC’s make money and therefore the fundamental request you are making when asking for a job as a VC. Venture capitalists make money in two ways – from management fees (a percentage of funds under management) and from carry (a percentage of the return on investment). The partners of the fund use the management fee to pay the expenses of running the business (office space, technical infrastructure, travel, support, etc.) and then pay themselves with what’s left over. As a non-partner you are fundamentally a cost center. The partners are quite literally taking money out of their own pockets and giving it to you. Rationally, they will only do this for one of two reasons – either you are significantly impacting their lives in a positive way that makes the trade-off worthwhile for them (you cost less than the marginal life benefit they get from having you around) and/or you will help create more carry (i.e., they can manage more deals with you around and therefore deploy more capital; you have a skill set that will positively affects the portfolio, etc.). If you fail to do these things you are just eating up management fees. There is a grey area here for Principals (called VP’s or SVP’s at some shops, junior partners at others) who are managing their own deals as well as supporting partners’ deals.

Step three: Get close to VC’s. The road to becoming a VC follows many different paths, but fundamentally your first step in landing a VC gig is likely to be figuring out who the VCs are in your area and trying to get close to them. If you’re still in college, consider a job in an investment bank or other financial services firm (even VC analyst jobs are hard to come by straight out of college – VCs tend to hire people with at least some financial training at those levels) to get the best possible training for an entry level job in VC. If you are in business school, look for internships that will allow you to meet venture capitalists (either at a VC directly or for a portfolio company of a VC). If you don’t fit any of those categories, take a job at a company backed by venture money and try to get exposure to the venture capitalists on the company’s board. In short do what you can to get to know VCs in your area so that when a position opens up you can be both top of mind and a known commodity. Take a longer term view of your approach and remember that many VCs got there not by following a traditional path (banking --> b-school --> VC) but have years of operating experience, were entrepreneurs themselves, or were somehow else involved in the business of building and growing companies.
Step four. Be smart about networking. I’m writing a separate post on the subject of smart networking, but suffice it to say here that you should put some thought in how you use your network to meet VCs. Figure out who you know who also knows VCs that you’d like to meet and play the network game as best you can. It can take a long long time to get meetings set up – be patient about it (Brad probably doesn’t remember this, but when I was first introduced to him in what was a very ‘hot’ introduction from someone who he trusted a lot and who had worked very closely with me, it took three months to actually get in to see him ).
Step five: Don’t get discouraged. If you remember back to step one, you weren’t going to be successful getting a job in VC in the first place, so all the progress you are making is gravy, right?!?

by seth levine