How to pivot into climate in a bad job market
A quick detour from our normal content
1/3rd of my class at the Stanford MBA program last year was unemployed at graduation. I was one of them. It took me six months full time job searching to find the role I wanted. Along the way, I faced seven hiring freezes after reaching the final round, with one employer sending me through nine rounds of interviews plus a take home case study where I sweated 40+ hours to perfect. I was stunned when I connected with classmates with stellar backgrounds and heard similar stories. It’s not something people share publicly, and I thought the whole time it was me.
It wasn’t just me. The chart below blew my mind when it was published:
After the VC bubble popped from its hay day in 2022, startups started being pushed to not grow at all costs, but rather trim the fat. At the same time, public companies were grappling with high interest rates and overhiring during the COVID pandemic. The impact? Hiring freezes. Lay offs. Little to no job postings. It’s what people are calling the “white collar recession.” Climate technology was not immune.
If you graduated without a job this year, you’re not alone. Despite all the chaos I just described, I landed the role I wanted in climate technology post graduation. Other peers employed creative tactics to get their dream roles in climate despite these massive headwinds.
This week, I want to opensource the challenges faced and tactics to overcome them with the hope that this can help more people break into climate technology. 🙏
Don’t worry - we aren’t pivoting from our original issues! I’ll return to our standard issues on climate technology in the next one. I’ve been thinking a lot about green cement, geological hydrogen, and long duration energy storage. 🤓
Challenge #1: Hiring freezes
Lesson learned: Better selection
At first glance, these hiring freezes at the companies below felt random:
Series B climate startup that raised VC funding from top investors last year with a lot of open job postings
A climate technology unicorn
Series C climate software startup
In a normal job market, any of these opportunities would have resulted in an offer. Through trial and error and speaking to classmates who didn’t face hiring freezes, I learned that the solution to this was better selection. How to select? This criteria worked:
Climate startup:
Raised VC funding within the last few months (not last year)
Earlier stage startups (pre-seed to Series A) since early stage funding is flowing more than growth funding
Startup is growing rapidly with a line of sight to cashflow positivity (not burning through cash)
There are many technical climate founders looking for their first business hire after they raise their Series A