All of our Career advice articles

Career advice

The 100 Best Bits of Advice from 10 Years of First Round Review

We combed The Review archives for a special compilation of the 100 very best advice published on our digital pages over the last 10 years from folks like Stewart Butterfield, Claire Hughes Johnson and Alexis Ohanian.)

Product

“Sweat the Details” and Other Commandments for Mapping Out a Career in Product

Veteran product leader Jiaona Zhang walks us through the biggest lessons from her entire career in product at Dropbox, Airbnb, WeWork and now Webflow, from breaking into the function as a first-time PM to tactical tips for navigating transitions into more senior roles.

Management

The 30 Best Pieces of Advice for Entrepreneurs in 2022

The best company-building advice is timeless, with a focus on the fundamentals. We rounded up 30 essential insights for startups to lean on in the coming year, no matter the climate.

Management

How to be an Exceptional Chief of Staff: Advice for Scaling Impact at Startups

10 tactical tips and guiding principles for a new Chief of Staff to lean on as they scale their impact at a startup — from building better systems, not just booking more meetings and finding an executive's superpower.

People & Culture

From BigCo to Startup: 20 Tips for Evaluating Early-Stage Companies & Making the Leap

Considering moving from BigCo to startup? We crowdsourced a tactical guide for first-time startup job-seekers on how to evaluate career opportunities at early-stage companies.

Management

The Critical Startup Skills You Might Be Overlooking — And How to Bring Them Into Focus

We’ve combed the extensive Review archives for tactical guidance from some of the sharpest folks we know on how to get better at specific startup skills you’re probably discounting. Leaders like Annie Duke, Liz Fosslien, Brie Wolfson and more share tactical ideas.

Management

Stop Overcomplicating It: The Simple Guidebook to Upping Your Management Game

Russ Laraway wades through all of the competing opinions, complex frameworks and advice out there on how to be a better manager, creating a simple, data-backed leadership toolkit.

Engineering

How to Chart Your Engineering Career Path: IC, Manager or Technical Founder?

From early employee to technical founder: Amber Feng shares essential lessons for engineers up and down the org chart, drawing from her 8-year career at Stripe and becoming a technical founder of Cocoon.

People & Culture

"Take Control of Your Desk," And Other Career Tips for ICs, Managers & Founders

After an 11-year career as an HR exec at Splunk, Shreya Iyer unpacks her comprehensive guide to startup career growth, with tailored tips for candidates approaching career planning, managers looking to retain top talent, and startups carving out their career development plans.

Management

Ditch Your To-Do List and Use These Docs To Make More Impact

After tackling startup challenges from Stripe Press to Figma Education, Brie Wolfson shares her personal collection of templates — the docs that she's used to stay focused on the work that matters and true to her own career goals.

Management

Your Startup’s Management Training Probably Sucks — Here’s How to Make it Better

Plenty of startups leave manager training on the backburner until they become a bigger company — or try to fit it into a 30-minute lunch-and-learn. Melissa and Johnathan Nightingale, founders of Raw Signal Group, unpack why this is a mistake and outline their top tips for management training.

Management

The 30 Best Pieces of Advice for Entrepreneurs in 2021

Start the new year off on the right footing with the 30 most impactful insights and ultra-tactical frameworks from every article we published in 2021.