How to Ask for a Raise

Scouted was a hiring marketplace that matched candidates to roles based on potential, serving clients from high-growth startups to Fortune 500 companies.

5 min read • Originally published September 12, 2019 / Updated March 19, 2026

By Scouted

Scouted was a hiring marketplace that matched candidates to roles based on potential, serving clients from high-growth startups to Fortune 500 companies.

5 min read • Originally published September 12, 2019 / Updated March 19, 2026

Asking for a raise can be really stressful, and many people avoid the conversation simply because they are afraid of upsetting their boss or having the awkward conversation. But the fact of the matter is, it is crucial to bring it up and advocate for yourself, especially if your company doesn’t have an annual review process in which cost of living raises are usually offered. Asking for a raise in your current company and role can also be crucial in terms of earning more money down the line when you switch companies or look for new roles. To take at least some of the stress out of the conversation, here are our top tips for how to prepare for and ask for a raise.

Do your research

It’s important to spend some time gathering information about how much people in your job in your geographical area usually make. You want to see not only where your current salary falls in that range, but you can use it as a reasonable goal for where you’d like to end up. Start by looking up average salaries by years of experience and industry on Glassdoor or Angelist. Then, maybe ask around to friends and family who work in similar industries if you happen to know anyone. Remember that not all companies have the ability to pay the same and that many factors go into determining salaries like the size of your company, your location, your experience, and responsibilities.

You also want to do some research about how and when your company handles salary increases. Do they have an annual review process that comes with a discussion of salary? Does that line up with the fiscal year or each individual start date? It’s important to understand how the money flows in your company so that you can time the conversation correctly.

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Choose the right time

Speaking of timing, it is crucial that you are smart about when you are choosing to have this conversation. Generally speaking, you don’t want to ask for a raise if you’ve been at the company for less than a year, or you had a salary increase within the past year. Exceptions to this rule would be if the scope of your job has changed drastically since that last increase. If you know that you have an annual review coming up, that is the perfect time to bring up a raise request, and most employers will expect to have this conversation at that time.

If your company doesn’t have a structured annual review process, then timing the conversation after a big win is another good tactic. Did you just bring in a ton of new business? Solved a long-term organizational problem? Anytime you’ve contributed something massive to the company and made your value known is the perfect time to discuss your future with the company. You also want to make sure to avoid hectic times of the year for your boss or at the end of the fiscal year when money is tight.

Be prepared to toot your own horn

During this conversation, you want to focus on the value that you have brought to the company and why you deserve a raise based on the work that you’ve been doing. It can be a great idea to write out some of the things that you’ve accomplished over the past year, and how this added to the success of the company overall. You don’t want to focus on why you need a raise, because that’s not your employer’s problem. It is a much better tactic to emphasize the hard work and dedication you’ve shown to the company. It is also very appropriate to outline the ways in which you’ve stepped outside of your role to help the team succeed and use that as a justification for a higher salary. This can also be a good time to ask for additional responsibility if you’d like to take your career to the next level, in which case a raise would be very logical.

Keep the conversation simple and direct

While you want to be prepared, you don’t need to go in with a full PowerPoint presentation on your value to the company. To open the discussion, you can start with something simple such as:

I was hoping that we could discuss my salary. It has been a year since my last raise, and I feel that my work on X and Y has demonstrated my dedication and hard work. I would also be interested in taking on some additional responsibilities over the next year to grow my role in the company. Could we take a look at increasing my salary to reflect this?

You want to be specific about your accomplishments, but you don’t need to bombard your manager with a million reasons right off the bat. Just get the conversation started and see where it goes from there. But be prepared to go into further detail if requested. You also don’t need to come out with a dollar amount that you’re looking for right off the bat, as they will most likely negotiate, but it is good to have a number in mind as they will probably ask.

Don’t worry if the answer isn’t yes

Most likely your manager won’t agree to a raise right off the bat, as they will have to run the request up the chain of command. Your goal is to get the conversation started and let management know that you’re dedicated to the company and looking to move forward with them in a way that is beneficial to everyone. If your manager does come right out and say that a raise isn’t going to possible at this time, it is perfectly acceptable to ask for additional feedback about why. Maybe it’s because of internal things, and no one is getting raises, or maybe there are concerns about your performance that haven’t been communicated to you. It’s important to be receptive to any feedback that comes out of this conversation and it can be a good idea to ask what you might need to do to qualify for a raise in the future.

While asking for a raise is something many people dread doing, it is 100% normal and required in order to further your career. Salary increases aren’t only necessary to keep up with the cost of living, but can improve job satisfaction and help to keep you at the right level for the current market. An internal raise also shows future companies that you were valued and did good work, which can be instrumental in continuing on a path of upward mobility. We’ve all got to be better at asking for what we deserve.

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Candidates, Climb the Ladder

Climb the Ladder

Your First Year at a Job Is Like an Early-Stage Startup

By Scouted

Scouted was a hiring marketplace that matched candidates to roles based on potential, serving clients from high-growth startups to Fortune 500 companies.

5 min read • Originally published September 19, 2019 / Updated March 19, 2026

By Scouted

Scouted was a hiring marketplace that matched candidates to roles based on potential, serving clients from high-growth startups to Fortune 500 companies.

5 min read • Originally published September 19, 2019 / Updated March 19, 2026

I’ve written a lot about working at a startup. I’m a huge advocate when it comes to telling people that at some point in their life they should work for one – whether it be as an intern, your first job, or as a career change – because of the huge potential for growth and learning.

Yet oftentimes when I tell people that they should work for a startup, it’s easy to leave out the actual day to day, week to week, month to month aspects of the job. It’s without a doubt a shock to the system no matter at what stage someone is coming to a startup.

That being said, in this blog, I’ll do my best to explain what the first year of working at a startup is really like. I’ll throw in some insights, tips & tricks, and a few anecdotes to provide the most accurate and holistic view of my first year working at Scouted.

A humbling experience

Going into your first startup is a little like going into your freshman year of college. It’s a whole new experience with new and interesting people in a foreign place. You’re figuring out where your classes are, how to balance school and making friends, and realizing that there are a whole lot of different things to do.

My first year of working at Scouted was very similar to my first year at William & Mary (go Tribe!). I was pretty out of my depth for the first 6 months… I struggled, plain and simple. There was a lot of self-loathing and misunderstanding, stopping and starting, and doubt. I was trying to figure out what I was supposed to be doing and how to do it, all while on the job.

It wasn’t until 6 months in where I really started to realize I needed to calm down and take things one step at a time. I started to read more, sit in on other meetings, talk to mentors/people who were more knowledgeable than me. It was this realization that really resonated with me: I need to get over the hump and get my shit together, people were counting on me to do my job and do it well, one way or another.

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New/learning things

Reading was critical in my first year on the job. Once I realized I didn’t know every single thing there was about my job, I made it my mission to learn everything that I needed to in order to be successful. On a typical day, anywhere from ⅓ to ½ my time was spent reading, listening, and consuming anything that was relevant to my job. I spent hours in the depths of marketing, business, and startup blogs.

As mentioned above, it was here I learned that people have spent a lot of time trying and failing in order to come up with successful methods. Testing was an integral part of being successful at a startup and failing (to an extent) was expected in order to find a greater outcome. By picking up these tips and tricks, I began applying them to my daily workflow, whether it be in metric tracking, building ad campaigns, or product improvements.

Testing and building

Testing has become and is an integral part of my life now – nothing I do now doesn’t start with some form of a test/experiment. But when I first started working, it took a while to realize that this was normal procedure. It wasn’t as simple as being told what to do it and how to do it, it was more along the lines of here is this very ambiguous goal figure out how we achieve it.

For example, one of my very ambiguous goals was “Double our users,” and as our marketing lead, this was an integral part of my job. Yet as a kid straight out of school – how the hell was I going to double our users while on a shoestring budget?

That’s where testing comes into play. I tried everything under the sun to see how we could double users. Everything from going to college campuses, Facebook ads, calling candidates to get them to convert, Linkedin, etc… I spent weeks working 80+ hours, and through a lot of trial and error, I was able to learn a lot of things and figure out a sustainable marketing strategy for Scouted with a lot of elements that we still use to this day.

Getting into a groove

Similar to a bicycle, I began to click through the gears and I found a rhythm that was sustainable and efficient. When I went to work every morning I knew what my, the team’s, and the overall business goals were. There’s something about this feeling of alignment that really gets me going. A collective and effective unit all simultaneously driving towards the same goal. My work felt meaningful and varied, there was no stagnation. Despite this being my first job I knew this was something special that a lot of people don’t get to experience, a job I truly enjoyed and loved.

Maybe I’m lucky, maybe it’s like this at a lot of startups, it’s hard to tell at times. Yet I knew that this was a role that I was really enjoying, I was learning, testing, and driving real business outcomes all within the space of a single year.

Autonomy and driving outcomes

When people think of startups, they think of a more open/relaxed culture, open-plan offices, cold brew and beer on tap. Yet there is a lot of hard work that goes on behind the scenes before any startup gets to that point. It took almost a year, but by this point, I was starting to enjoy more of the fruits of our labor. Things like working from home and team lunches were great, but the thing that I received by the end of my first year that I enjoyed the most was greater autonomy. 1 year out of college, I was given nearly free reign over an entire part of the business, something that is virtually unheard of anywhere else.

I want to remind you that while this experience may be shared at other companies, it definitely isn’t common. I was and am very fortunate to have founders that are extremely open to giving employees the opportunity to forge their own path and provide the tools necessary to be successful down that path.

Nonetheless, this is probably the best way I can describe the first year working at a startup, difficult yet rewarding.

Hopefully, my experience can offer some insight and informs you if you’re ever making the decision to work at a startup.

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Candidates, Climb the Ladder

Climb the Ladder

Finish What You Start: Lessons From Camp

By Scouted

Scouted was a hiring marketplace that matched candidates to roles based on potential, serving clients from high-growth startups to Fortune 500 companies.

4 min read • Originally published September 25, 2019 / Updated March 19, 2026

By Scouted

Scouted was a hiring marketplace that matched candidates to roles based on potential, serving clients from high-growth startups to Fortune 500 companies.

4 min read • Originally published September 25, 2019 / Updated March 19, 2026

Lessons come from unlikely places.

I recently spent the weekend at my summer camp’s 50th reunion hanging out with close friends and reconnecting with people I hadn’t seen in over 15 years. We slept in cabins, ate in the dining hall, went water skiing, tie-dyed T-shirts… I got to be 16 again for 48 hours and it was truly magical.

Amidst the reminiscing, there was a lot of reflecting. What was 16-year-old Jacqueline like (no one called me “Jax” back then), how has she changed, how has she stayed the same? Camp was an extremely formative experience for me – perhaps my most formative. It was a place where I felt completely free to be “me” and as a result, I discovered who I was, what was important to me, and what made me feel fulfilled and happy.

Being surrounded by former campers and counselors – friends and mentors – I was reminded of some of the most important lessons I learned; principles that have stayed with me my whole life and now, as I am several years into running and growing my own company, two, in particular, seem particularly prescient.

“Finish what you start”

“Never stop at the bottom of the hill”

For context, at camp, I was a canoe tripping guide (in Canadian speak, we called it being a ‘Tripper’), which meant that I lead campers on extended, overnight canoe trips in the Canadian wilderness for up to two weeks at a time. The two principles above came from one of my favorite Trippers who took me out as a camper. He pushed me harder than anyone and made me realize that I could accomplish things I never thought possible.

5’ 1.5”, 16-year old me was portaging a canoe (and not those light Kevlar ones that exist today, but a 90lb, water-logged, metal Grumman as well as a 60lb pack) along a 1 km portage. Normally, I’d stop for a break every 300 meters or so, but he pushed me to walk the entire 1 km without stopping. He wouldn’t let me put down the canoe. It took over an hour to complete, I was moving so slowly by the end. “Finish what you start,” he said.

And I did. And I had never felt so exhausted and so proud.

Me taking a hatchet to the portage sign just after completing it

So why do you “never stop at the bottom of a hill”? Because the hill isn’t going away… it’s better to persevere over the challenge and wait to take a (well-deserved) break once you get past the hardest part.

Despite the fact that I currently sit in an office for ten hours a day and only find myself out in the wilderness on the rare vacation, these principles are exceptionally relevant to running (and working at) a startup, especially when the going gets tough (which sometimes feels like the rule rather than the exception).

In reflecting on my experience this weekend, I emailed my friend and former Tripper a note expressing how much he influenced my time at camp and beyond, how I’ve carried his teachings with me into the real world. He wrote back that people often overlook how much they also learn from their campers: “How I manage my team now is from lessons learned from [camp]. Although I can’t push them to tears with a canoe on their backs, from those experiences I’ve learned that people have an extra gear – just need to find the right trigger to help them find it. Thank you for teaching me that.”

Figuring out how to motivate a team to achieve the impossible, how to help people grow and achieve new heights is a big part of being CEO of a company and one of the hardest parts of my job. His thoughts are particularly applicable at this time in my CEO journey as I am actively working through how to find the right triggers for each member of my team. I never would have realized it at the time, but my summers in the woods were some of the best training for my years in the office.

Reflecting back on how I helped campers have the courage to carry their first canoe, how I created an experience that left them remembering the torrential downpour and wild winds as the best part of their canoe trip vs the worst, is helping me to think creatively about how to energize my team today. We all need to be reminded every once in a while that we’re tougher than we might feel.

Where have you learned some of your most important, if not unexpected, lessons? What were they? Please share them with me – I’d love to hear your stories and thoughts.

#finishwhatyoustart

Photos from Camp:

Jacqueline Loeb Scouted — 2019 – Jamie and me en route to our camp reunion

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Candidates, Climb the Ladder

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Do You Need a Personal Brand for Your Job Search?

By Scouted

Scouted was a hiring marketplace that matched candidates to roles based on potential, serving clients from high-growth startups to Fortune 500 companies.

5 min read • Originally published October 11, 2019 / Updated March 19, 2026

By Scouted

Scouted was a hiring marketplace that matched candidates to roles based on potential, serving clients from high-growth startups to Fortune 500 companies.

5 min read • Originally published October 11, 2019 / Updated March 19, 2026

Do You Need a Personal Brand For Your Job Search?

You’re probably familiar with branding as it relates to companies, products, and services. But the idea of “branding” can apply to yourself, too.

A “personal brand” is defined as the way you present yourself to others, both in-person and online. In other words, what do you want people to think of when they hear your name? More specifically, personal branding has become much more important to your job search, especially since the rise of professional social networking sites like LinkedIn. Whether you are a college student looking for an internship, or a professional at any stage of your career, here is a quick overview of how your personal brand can influence your job search.

Why is a personal brand important for your job search?

Suppose you are a hiring manager looking to hire for an entry-level PR position. You’ve interviewed two strong candidates, and you are conducting some final research before you make a decision. After typing each candidate’s name into Google, you see that the results for one candidate include a personal blog, a complete LinkedIn profile, and a few articles that she wrote for a PR company as part of an internship. The results for the other candidate only include a basic LinkedIn profile without a headshot, and an old high school newspaper article about the candidate winning a tournament with the track & field team. So which candidate would you choose?

If you are like 35% of employers, you wouldn’t even interview a candidate who doesn’t have an online presence. In other words, if hiring managers can’t find you online, it’s like you don’t exist. Maintaining a strong personal brand, especially online, can be the difference between getting the job or not.

Since personal branding is also proactive rather than reactive, you are more likely to have new professional opportunities come to you rather than relying on traditional job search methods like applying for advertised postings.

Laying the groundwork for your personal brand

The first step for creating your personal brand involves thinking about your personal and professional values, as well as what you want to be known for. Do you want to present yourself as a visual designer with a background in illustration? A marketing guru who has a passion for nonprofits? A writer who specializes in technology topics? Like a group of founders developing a company brand, you might benefit from writing a personal brand statement for yourself to use as a guide.

After asking yourself some deep questions about your mission, interests, and values, think about who your audience is for interacting with your personal brand. When it comes to a job search, your audience is probably recruiters, hiring managers, and prospective co-workers. Your audience will dictate the voice you use (friendly, professional, authoritative, funny, etc.) with any content you develop for your personal brand. Thinking about your brand statement as well as your audience will help you stay consistent across different social media profiles and marketing channels.

Once you have your brand statement and audience in mind, it’s time to start creating! Since a personal brand is especially important for your online presence, it includes content you create for social media and websites, which can position you as an expert in your area. Take these three steps to develop and curate content your personal brand.

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Three steps for curating your personal brand

Optimize your LinkedIn profile

LinkedIn has more than 645 million members, making it one of the best places to start implementing your personal brand. To start, fill out your summary at the top of your profile. Your summary should be written in first-person and tell your professional story. Depending on how you’ve put together your brand statement, you can use this section to talk about your interests, experience, mission, or values. Your profile should also include a headshot. Compared to profiles without a profile photo, LinkedIn members with a photo receive 21 times more profile views and 9 times more connection requests.

Aside from your profile itself, your actions on LinkedIn also play a role in your personal brand. For example, you can write thought leadership pieces to publish on LinkedIn. This will establish you as an expert with meaningful contributions to your industry. It can also increase profile views. If you become an active participant in LinkedIn groups and comment on other threads related to your company, industry, or job function, this can also put you on the radar for companies that are hiring for positions that you would be qualified for.

You can also publish blogs and thought leadership pieces on LinkedIn. Along with this, you can use your profile to link to projects you’ve worked on and other places you appear on the web.

Set up a personal website

Creating a personal website is one way to put your personal brand on display. A personal website is particularly important for design-oriented professionals, writers, or creatives who need a way to present their portfolio to prospective employers. In addition to any portfolio work, your personal website should include your bio, links to your social media, and a way to contact you. Maintaining a blog related to your interests and/or your industry is another way to show that you are actively taking control of your personal brand.

Aside from content creation, use your website’s design (color palette, images, fonts, etc.) to convey your personality and brand. When possible, use your own name (like “www.janedoe.com”) as your domain name so that your website shows up at the top of search results when employers search for you on Google.

Think about your social media profiles

According to a 2018 survey from CareerBuilder, 70% of hiring managers use social media to screen job candidates and more than half have found content that caused them not to hire a candidate. We’re not going to tell you that everything you post on your personal social media channels should be completely professional and resume-worthy. But we will remind you that hiring managers will look. So go ahead, be yourself and post things you like, but remember to be kind and respectful. You know, things that hiring managers will want to see from you in the workplace.

More importantly, creating a personal brand is not a one-and-done. It involves carefully curating your online reputation and showing active involvement or expertise in your industry. Your personal brand should also evolve with you and be an integral part of your professional growth.

Looking for more job search tips? Subscribe to the Scouted newsletter.

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Why You’re Getting Ghosted During Your Job Search

By Scouted

Scouted was a hiring marketplace that matched candidates to roles based on potential, serving clients from high-growth startups to Fortune 500 companies.

4 min read • Originally published October 18, 2019 / Updated March 19, 2026

By Scouted

Scouted was a hiring marketplace that matched candidates to roles based on potential, serving clients from high-growth startups to Fortune 500 companies.

4 min read • Originally published October 18, 2019 / Updated March 19, 2026

How many times has this happened to you? You just had a great job interview, promptly sent a thank you note to the hiring manager, and waited a week, then two, then three to hear back about next steps.

Nothing.

Sometimes not hearing anything at all can feel even worse than getting a job rejection email. Candidates often assume that they’re being “ghosted” because they weren’t a good fit for the position. But more often than not, it’s not the candidate’s fault that the employer is taking so long to respond. There’s a lot of working behind the scenes that goes into hiring that might take longer than a candidate expects. Rather than refresh your inbox every few minutes, quell some of those job search fears by remembering some of these factors that could delay hearing back from a prospective employer.

People are on vacation or out of the office

Sometimes a key person in the decision-making process is on vacation, sick, or responding to a family emergency. One absent person can hold up the rest of the team from making a decision or sending out an offer letter. This is particularly likely to be the case if the team is small, since it can be difficult to hand off the hiring process to another person who already has their hands full. Keep in mind that we’re also coming into the holiday season where many people are out of the office, so recruitment can take longer than usual.

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There are a lot of decision-makers who need to weigh in

If you’ve ever had a panel interview or multiple rounds of interviews, you are probably familiar with just how many people can be involved in the recruitment process. Sometimes it’s an issue of getting everyone on the same calendar invite to talk about the different candidates and decide who should get the job offer. Aside from the team that is conducting the search, there could also be logistics and paperwork involved with human resources that will hold up the process. This is why the more information you have about the recruitment process at the outset, the better equipped you will be in case of delays.

Other interviews are taking longer than anticipated

In most cases, employers are interviewing several candidates for a position. While they may have initially scheduled all interviews to take place the same week, chances are that either a candidate or the hiring manager needed to reschedule. One shift in the interview schedule can delay the entire process for other job candidates. In fact, according to Glassdoor, the interview process lasts an average of 22.9 days. Research from MRINetworks also shows that it takes an average of five to six weeks to receive a job offer after the final round of interviews, a time span that has been gradually increasing over the past few years and reflects the complexity of the recruitment process.

A key employee is leaving the company and the job description is going to change

The position you are interviewing for may not be the only one that needs to be filled. If another employee leaves the company around the same time, the company could be restructuring the department or reimagining different roles as a result. For example, the position you applied for may temporarily absorb some of the other employee’s duties until a replacement can be found for him/her, too. This doesn’t necessarily mean you are out of the running, but it might take longer for the company to extend an offer or let you know that the position is on hold.

Other company projects are taking priority

In today’s world, business priorities are constantly changing. Maybe the executive team has just released new strategic goals that require current employees to make new changes to their operations. Maybe it’s the end of the company’s fiscal year and the team is pushing to meet a quota. Or maybe there’s a merger in the works, or a major new software that’s being implemented. The company probably didn’t forget about you, but filling the position might no longer be top of mind. This is where a well-timed follow-up email could work in your favor, especially if you are the only candidate who reaches out.

How to handle getting ghosted

If you suspect that you are getting ghosted by an employer, you don’t have to keep passively waiting for a response. Be proactive! If the hiring manager said they would have an answer for you after a week, it is appropriate to follow up after that amount of time passes. Send an email to the hiring manager to check in on the process and ask if there’s anything else they need from you in the meantime. In any follow-up correspondence, reiterate your interest in the position and ask if they have an updated timeline for their decision. If you still don’t hear anything back after your follow-up email, it’s probably time to move on. No need to spam the hiring manager’s inbox.

Remember, you shouldn’t put your job search on pause just because an employer is taking too long to get back to you. Instead, keep interviewing and searching for the employer that’s the best fit for you. If that uncommunicative employer does eventually respond with good news, you may even find yourself in the lucky position of choosing between two job offers!

Take control of your job search today by subscribing to the Scouted newsletter.

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How Long Should You Stay at a Job?

By Scouted

Scouted was a hiring marketplace that matched candidates to roles based on potential, serving clients from high-growth startups to Fortune 500 companies.

6 min read • Originally published November 14, 2019 / Updated March 19, 2026

By Scouted

Scouted was a hiring marketplace that matched candidates to roles based on potential, serving clients from high-growth startups to Fortune 500 companies.

6 min read • Originally published November 14, 2019 / Updated March 19, 2026

We get it. Some jobs just aren’t what you imagined they’d be. Whether you’re really not feeling the office culture or you see a pattern of requests for you to do things that weren’t exactly in your job description, you could have several reasons for why a job just isn’t working out. But how soon is too soon to leave? Of course, you don’t want to be labeled as another #millennial job-hopper, so how and when do you leave a company so it doesn’t hurt your chances at landing the next job?

First thing’s first.

Should you stick it out?

Let’s talk about your reasons for wanting to leave your current company. If you’re brand new and still getting used to a new role at a company, it’s normal to feel a little out of place and overwhelmed. There’s a learning curve to every job. And while it may feel uncomfortable going from a place where you knew exactly what you were doing and what to expect to a brand new office environment and set of responsibilities, ask yourself if it might be worth sticking it out.

Also read: 3 Ways To Maintain Your Integrity In Difficult Workplace Situations

Communicate

Even if things at your new job got off to a rocky start, there may still be hope. Why not try scheduling a meeting with your manager to communicate some of the challenges you’ve been facing in your new job? You never know, you may be able to get things back on track before they become the new normal. Just be sure to give your team and company the benefit of the doubt when discussing your concerns. If you’re worried about getting in trouble or fired,

Lea McLeod of The Muse says, “It’s a big fat hassle for organizations to recruit and hire employees, only to lose them in a few short weeks. That means, as a new hire, you have leverage.”

So before you hand in your resignation letter, do your best to make an effort to make it work whether that means simply sticking it out or communicating with your boss on how to make your work environment slightly more pleasant.

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Why you might want to rethink leaving a new job

Of course, we won’t be the first to tell you there’s a stigma attached to young job seekers and that is job-hopping. But there is truth to it. According to a study done by Robert Half, “Seventy-five percent of employees ages 18 to 34 view job hopping as beneficial” which is an increase of 18% in just 4 years. So it’s easy to understand why a hiring manager may be wary of hiring you if you were only at your last two jobs a total of 20 months. Besides this, if you choose to leave after only spending 6 months to a year in a position, a new hiring manager may assume that you didn’t make the cut after your trial period or annual review, even if you say you left for your own reasons.

However, it’s important to note that according to the same study mentioned above, “when asked the number of role changes in 10 years that constitute a job hopper, professionals said five and CFOs cited six.” So even if you leave your current job after just a few months, that alone probably won’t be enough to hurt your career. Just as long as short time spans at various companies doesn’t begin to look habitual. If the rest of your work experience tells a positive story about you and your work ethic, the important part will simply be learning how to explain why you only worked at your previous company for a short amount of time and what you were able to learn from the experience.

Also read: How to Explain an Employment Gap

So how long should I stay at a job- minimum?

For any job that you had for under a year, you might want to consider leaving it off your resume. If you can, try to make the years you were at a position span as long as possible. For example, saying you were at a job from November 2016 to March 2018 looks a lot better than January 2018 to December 2018 although the difference is only 4 months. According to Fortune.com, staying at a job for 4 years is the point at which any candidate can get “full credit” for staying at a job. Anything less than this, you should do your best to prove that you did well in your annual reviews and were able to make something of a difference at the company.

Of course, the longer you’re able to stay with an employer, the better. However, even if you were able to stay at the same company for 5 or more years, you should still be able to tell a story of upward movement or at least show that you were trusted with more responsibility during your time there. Staying at the same company is great, but if you’re doing the same thing on your last day that you were doing on your first day, that could also be a sign to hiring managers that you’re either unmotivated or, at the very least, not that spectacular.

Remember,

Always leave a job on good terms

We all have those “the grass is greener on the other side moments.” But what if you get to your new job and discover that the grass is not as green as you imagined? If you’ve spent a few weeks at your new company and you just don’t see it working out, there may be a chance you can ask for your old job back, as long as you left on good terms. Even if your old job isn’t still available, there may be a fit for you in another department. Of course, none of this would be possible at all if you had a Hollywood-worthy storm out moment.

If you do decide to quit and look elsewhere…

If you find yourself making the decision to quit after being at a job for less than a year, again, you may want to leave it off your resume unless you can clearly point to things to accomplished and did for the company while you were there. Alex Twersky of MediaBistro says, “If you haven’t left your job yet and you’re working on a defined project, it can be better to stay and complete it, so you can clearly define your contributions and measurable outcomes.” If there’s not much to point to at the end of your time with the company, you might consider leaving it off your resume to avoid being seen as a job-hopper.

Overall, if you’re extremely unhappy at a position, don’t feel like you need to sacrifice your quality of life just to make your resume look better to future employers. Evaluate your situation and determine if there’s anything you could do to make it better- ie. ask for a raise, ask for more or different responsibilities, or even ask to switch departments. In the end, if you’ve put in a small chunk of time at a company and were able to make a difference during your time there, don’t be nervous to tell a potential employer that you’re ready for the next challenge!

Topics:

Candidates, Climb the Ladder

Climb the Ladder

What Does a Product Manager Actually Do?

By Scouted

Scouted was a hiring marketplace that matched candidates to roles based on potential, serving clients from high-growth startups to Fortune 500 companies.

11 min read • Originally published November 15, 2019 / Updated March 19, 2026

By Scouted

Scouted was a hiring marketplace that matched candidates to roles based on potential, serving clients from high-growth startups to Fortune 500 companies.

11 min read • Originally published November 15, 2019 / Updated March 19, 2026

First of all, what is a product manager?

A product manager is someone who bridges the gap between business and technology. They quite literally manage the product(s) that a company wants to produce and that a development team needs to build.

How that manifests in day-to-day, however, is much less clear-cut. My experience being Product Manager at Scouted, for example, hasn’t been by the book by any definition. From the way that I got into the position to my day-to-day responsibilities, my job as a product manager (PM) has always been interesting. But that’s what’s been great about it! Just like most jobs, there’s no ‘one way’ to be a PM. I’ll walk you through how I got here, how I learned to do the job well, and what you can expect in the role – you never know, Product Manager might just be the job you’re searching for!

How I got into Product Management

I started at Scouted as my first job out of undergrad, working as a Talent Associate to help candidates through their job search. I helped candidates optimize their profiles, worked with our Account Management team to coordinate interviews and help manage pipelines, and provided leverage to our Head of Customer Experience. My role at Scouted was always evolving as I took on more responsibilities and honed more of my analytical skills. I started using more of our insights and analytics tools to pull reports and optimize our processes, and eventually started taking on more responsibilities that required more tech and less human interaction/user support.

My slow transition into the more analytical side of things had a catalyst in March of 2018 when we had a major tech overhaul and a need for product management within our team. It was the combination of my work as a Talent Associate and my background in computer science that put me first in line out of those on my team to become a Product Manager. I had already gained an intimate knowledge of our platform and product working as a Talent Associate, from both the user perspective as well as from a backend, technical admin perspective. That experience combined with my 3 years studying computer science in undergrad put me in a position to help manage the gap between business and development, and become a technical product manager at Scouted.

How I learned to be a Product Manager

Our current CTO, who has over 20 years of experience in building tech companies, first walked me through the guidelines of my new responsibilities. We decided I’d jump right in and work 50/50 as Talent Associate & Product Manager to see how it went. Even though I knew our product basically inside and out and had experience coding and learning computer systems, this in no way made me fully equipped to start managing the product on my own. Once I got into the position, it was up to me to teach myself as much as I could, and quickly. The first and most substantial way I did this was by reading.

I read a lot of blogs when I got started. I mean a lot. Because we were in this transition period with our tech, I had to simultaneously fill in my knowledge gaps, ramp up to my new daily responsibilities, and help pick up and organize the pieces of our current tech. Blogs were my quick way to familiarize myself with the basics of product management, and I read (and still continue to read) books by established sources to work through the role and how I should structure it – one of my go-to’s is The Lean Product Playbook by Dan Olsen.

Check out some of my favorite blog sources below:

This role was not built in a day, though. Just like we iterate on our product, I iterated on my approach to this role from everything I learned in my reading. I worked with our CTO and development team to find out what worked best for all of us (and what definitely did not work), and after a few months of trial and error, created a process that was cohesive with our entire company’s existing workflows.

Additionally, our CTO put me in touch with other Product Managers to be mentored and to share experiences as we all iterate through the role. Through talking with other PMs, I got to learn that pretty much everyone has gotten into that position in different ways and comes from different backgrounds. Learning about how they manage the position has helped immensely both to overcome the learning curve and to know that other people are experiencing the same things you are and have the same questions and challenges.

Day in the life

A day in my life as a PM varies, especially since I work on another team at Scouted to keep helping out with candidates’ job searches (#startuplife), but there are definitely some common themes with any PM role.

User Input

Here at Scouted, we talk to our candidates every day – whether that’s through interview prep, resume feedback, or in my case as a product manager, hearing the problems and questions people have when using our product. We use email and ZenDesk to manage our candidate communication, with ZenDesk being my main way to hear from our users. By running our support channel, I know immediately when users need help using our product. This, along with many other monitoring tools that help us collect feedback and user behavior trends, allows me to keep a finger on the pulse of our site. We’re a small team here, but as you become a more experienced PM or if you work at a larger company, you’ll go from speaking directly with users daily and seeing their input first hand, to hearing more synthesized accounts of user feedback, and even conducting or observing user interviews to get their input in real time.

Prioritizing

If I had to pick one word to define product management, it would be Prioritization. Everyone is coming to you with things – broken things, things we need to build, things we’d like to build, dreams for the future, etc. You need to be able to decide which one should be tackled first, if at all. Fear not, as you hopefully have some groundwork to help you with these decisions. This help comes in the form of your Company Vision and a Product Roadmap – the long-term strategic plan for your company’s product. Not everyone has a fully established product roadmap, but it’s pretty safe to say that every company has a vision – aka what your company is trying to accomplish. Its end goal. The product(s) your company has and the ones you plan to build should all do their part to help accomplish that company vision as a baseline requirement.

Once you make sure every feature or idea achieves that baseline goal, I like to prioritize based on other important aspects like how many of our users it will reach, if it will help generate revenue or acquire more users, if it makes things more efficient, or if it helps build our brand. I also manage tech emergencies as they come up, and dig into things that might look like emergencies in order to get to the root of the deeper problem before they get to the development team. You have a certain amount of resources, so you not only want to make sure time is being spent on the right things first, but also that the development team can work largely uninterrupted in order to finish those prioritized items.

Once you have determined something really is a priority, then you get to write what’s called a ‘user story.’

Writing User Stories

Once you have an idea of what the users want and need, and how that aligns with the company vision, you’re ready to write a story. A story is a way of clearly defining what your development team should build when they’re ready to build it. It lays out the end goal of a feature or update from the perspective of a user. This helps guide you and the development team and allows you to look at the finished product and ask ‘Did it accomplish the original goal?’

The collection of stories is known as a backlog, and it’s your job as PM to manage that backlog and make sure everything in it is well written with all the necessary details. You might inherit a lot of stories, as was my case, but even if you’re starting from ground zero, you’ll eventually have many many stories, which you’ll constantly redefine, reevaluate, and reprioritize as company goals shift, resources grow or shrink, or emergencies come up. What all of these stories will have in common is that they’re explicit and to the point, and are fully detailed so you could, in theory, hand them over to the development team and they can start building.

In theory.

In actuality, you’ll want to meet with your developers, which brings me to my next daily task.

Meetings. Lots of meetings.

You meet with internal company stakeholders, you “meet” with users, and you meet with your development team to make sure everything is in sync and good to go. How much I meet with people depends on the day and what I’m trying to accomplish. If I need a better understanding of a feature request from a team member, I’ll make sure to meet with those who requested it.

Since my work affects a lot of people, I start with the people who are in the trenches with that product feature in order to get a foundation, then work up to meeting with teams as a whole, including the decision makers who will need to sign off on the final approach we come up with. No matter the type of day, I’ll have at least one 15-30 minute meeting with our development team to go over the progress for the day, any questions they have for me, and what they’ll be working on next. This is called a standup. They’re great for keeping everyone on the same page and keeping us moving toward our final goal of some releasable feature, bug fix, or update to the site. I’ll also sync on the priorities for the week with our founders and CTO to make sure we’re all on the same page and that I didn’t miss anything or mis-evaluate tradeoffs of long term goals.

Testing

But how do you know these approved and fully-produced things work? Testing! The last major part of my day is product testing. Once our development team finishes a sprint, and they’ve tested it internally for quality assurance (QA testing), it then gets sent over to me where I run through the typical flows of the user who will be interacting with the new feature/fix/update. This responsibility, again, comes with being a PM with a younger product but is so valuable for making sure we’re releasing things that we’re proud of. I make sure to cover all our bases in testing as a normal user, and many times recruit the stakeholders I originally met with when building the feature in order to make sure it works as we expected. Some things do slip by, in which case we’ll keep doing smaller ‘smoke tests’ when it’s live with our users to make sure everything is working like it should. This is also the benefit of having an ear in our support channel, as I’ll hear pretty quickly from users if something isn’t working as it should.

So what skills does all this take?

As I mentioned earlier, my experience as a PM has been at a small startup with a young product, so a lot of the skills I find helpful in the role come along with our company being at this stage. So while a PM at a more established company who manages just one product out of many might not need to juggle as many balls, for example, in general, you can expect to need the following skills and traits to thrive in a PM role.

Adaptability

You’re never ‘finished’ building a product. You iterate, the product backlog grows, things break, users request features, your company product goals shift, etc. You need to be ok with constant change and shifting priorities. There are two sides to this coin – you do get the satisfaction of releasing an item you’ve seen from start to finish, but the product itself is never done and dusted so to speak. Keeping a level head amongst an influx of issues from all sides of the company is essential so you can stay sane and make sure things still get done.

Listening

Your end goal is to help build and maintain products that serve your company’s purpose, which in turn is solving some need of your user. In order to effectively do this, you need to listen to the users, your internal stakeholders, your bosses, etc. You receive lots of feedback as a PM, so when users or stakeholders discuss certain aspects of your product, the ability to listen carefully and dig into what people are really getting at will help you filter through the noise and ground your priorities in your overall goals.

Clear communication

Part of keeping a level head amongst the influx of things coming at you involves a lot of communication – you and the engineering team can’t do everything that the users and stakeholders need, so be upfront about that, set expectations, and keep everyone on the same page and in sync. Great communication skills also come in handy for writing those user stories so that there’s no misinterpreting what a feature should look like or do.

Technical skills

There are technical product managers, which is the camp I fall into, as well as non-technical. You don’t have to have coding experience but I can say that it’s helped me a lot to have a general understanding of how certain technical things work with our site, especially as we were also transitioning development teams in the process.

Conclusion

No matter how you get there, product management is a great way to effect long-lasting change in a business. Your responsibilities may vary by company, industry, experience level, etc. but ultimately, you are constantly working to improve the experience for your users and drive home the purpose of the product and business. Finding a product and mission that you’re passionate about is key because there are few things more satisfying than releasing a feature that has a direct and tangible impact on your company and its users.

Topics:

Candidates, Climb the Ladder

Climb the Ladder

How to Quantify Your Work Experience and Why You Should

By Scouted

Scouted was a hiring marketplace that matched candidates to roles based on potential, serving clients from high-growth startups to Fortune 500 companies.

3 min read • Originally published November 22, 2019 / Updated March 19, 2026

By Scouted

Scouted was a hiring marketplace that matched candidates to roles based on potential, serving clients from high-growth startups to Fortune 500 companies.

3 min read • Originally published November 22, 2019 / Updated March 19, 2026

We’ve talked before about how to leverage your soft skills like communication and analytical thinking in your resume and cover letter in order to land the job. But it’s not just showcasing your soft skills that’s important–putting emphasis on the numbers matters, too.

At Scouted, we always recommend including statistics or any quantifiable benchmarks in your resume. This gives future employers a clear picture of what you accomplished at your old company and what you could do for the next. Quantifying your work experience is also a great complement to behavioral interviewing, which requires you to tell a story that illustrates how you solved a problem or dealt with a given situation. Including the numbers in the bullet points of your resume is likely to increase your credibility, since it’s verifiable “proof” of your hard work and success.

The good news is that you don’t need to be a finance professional or in a management role in order to quantify your work experience. Start by asking yourself these questions for each job (and each bullet point!) that’s listed on your resume:

[sc name=“Newsletter”]

How much did you do?

Answering this question gives the hiring manager reading your resume or conducting the interview an idea of how much responsibility you were able to take on. Suppose you are an entry-level PR professional. In a first draft of your resume, the bullet points you include might be something along the lines of:

Managed public relations communications including press releases and media kits

But what if you rewrote that bullet point to include metrics that point to the full scope of your work? It could look like this instead:

Managed public relations communications, including 100+ press releases and 10 media kits, for 10 clients in the financial services industry

Now, that’s a lot more specific!

If you don’t always know the exact number or if that number varies, it’s also okay to give a range. When talking about your experience in management or leadership positions, for instance, you might say that you “supervised a team of 12 to 15 junior-level employees” and provide additional details about how you were involved in their onboarding, continued development, and day-to-day tasks.

How often did you do it?

This question describes the frequency of your actions. If compiling financial reports is an important component of your job, talk about how often you completed those reports and what the process entailed. For example, this resume bullet point might look like:

Compiled weekly expense reports for the company’s New York office, liaising with seven account executives and two senior managers.

Talking about frequency also works well when you complete a lot of work in not a lot of time. For example, an op-ed editor might describe one of her job responsibilities as:

Reviewed 25 article submissions per day and narrowed down to the top two for publication in the next day’s newspaper.

Using metrics to show sustained effort further emphasizes your skill in completing specific tasks relevant to your current job (and your next job!).

What were the tangible results, and over what time period?

This question underscores your impact on the company’s bottom line. How did you improve efficiency in your organization, or reduce costs, or grow the business? A marketing manager might write a resume bullet point that looks like this:

Grew the number of organic Facebook leads by 40% year-over-year, resulting in a 15% increase in revenue from paid social media marketing.

Similarly, someone who works in fundraising might write:

Launched a six-month capital campaign resulting in $8.2 million in donations, a 30% increase from the previous year’s campaign.

Demonstrating a clear financial impact on a business indicates your value as an employee, and also better positions you while negotiating your salary or asking for a raise.

How to Get Started

If reporting is a regular part of your job, such as in marketing, sales, or finance, it may also be easier to quantify your work experience as it relates to a specific company. Regardless, keep a document of personal metrics just for yourself in order to recall the things you’ve accomplished in the past that you can bring up later in resumes and interviews.

Topics:

Candidates, Climb the Ladder

Climb the Ladder

5 Favorite Interview Tips From Career Coaches

By Scouted

Scouted was a hiring marketplace that matched candidates to roles based on potential, serving clients from high-growth startups to Fortune 500 companies.

5 min read • Originally published December 6, 2019 / Updated March 19, 2026

By Scouted

Scouted was a hiring marketplace that matched candidates to roles based on potential, serving clients from high-growth startups to Fortune 500 companies.

5 min read • Originally published December 6, 2019 / Updated March 19, 2026

With the New Year right around the corner, now is the perfect time to get a head start on your 2020 job search. If you’ve already polished your resume and started sending out applications, chances are you have started hearing back from some companies to schedule an initial phone screen or an interview. But if you haven’t been to a job interview in a while or if this is for a position you really want, it’s normal to look for guidance on how to maximize your chance of performing well.

Since not everyone has access to a college career center or a personal career coach, we’ve compiled a list of some of the best advice for how to handle job interviews, courtesy of leading experts in the industry. Here are some of our favorite pieces of advice from Career coaches, from the first handshake to the thank you note.

1 | Tell a story!

“The single most effective thing you can do in an interview is to make your experience come alive through stories or examples. … Telling a good story is the most powerful way to stand out from the competition, since our brains are wired to remember the imagery, the drama, and the emotion that’s conveyed in a good story.”

– Robert Hellmann, president of Hellmann Career Consulting. Source: Forbes

Scouted’s take:

We always tell our candidates to tell their story – starting with their resume. Have friends and family read over your resume and ask them if your career progression makes sense, if questions about career gaps arise, and also if it’s generally clear and easy to read. Next, practice telling your career story before your interviews to make sure you’re able to communicate it in a clear and concise manner, especially if you’re looking to make a career change.

2 | Do your research and come with questions

“Most interviews will end with a chance for you to ask a few questions. Failure to ask anything may be interpreted as disinterest or a lack of preparation, so it is important to have a few questions ready. Some of your prepared questions may have already been answered during the interview, so always prepare more questions than you actually plan on asking.”

– Kristen Gilbert, Career Coach with Evolution Coaching

Scouted’s take:

Kristen said it best! One of the best ways to show your excitement about a position is to come with insightful questions about it or about the company as a whole. It shows you’ve done your research, that you’re smart, and that you care about the role you’ll play there.

3 | Never badmouth a previous employer.

“No matter how you left things with your recent job, avoid badmouthing your former employer or letting your anger enter the interview room. You shouldn’t lie about the situation, but you also don’t have to provide any details, either. Acknowledge the past, but don’t dwell on it. Instead, focus on explaining what you learned from your most recent job: about yourself, your skills, the type of role and work environment in which you thrive, etc. and how this experience has led you to this job. Your goal is to ultimately guide the conversation back to why you’re excited about this job opportunity, at this company, and why you are a good match for the role.”

– Amanda Augustine, Resident Career Expert for Talent Inc. Source: Fast Company

Scouted’s take:

We agree 100%. Yes, there are not-so-great managers out there and everyone has a bad experience in their lifetime. The thing is, it’s hard for hiring managers to understand both sides of the story and if you badmouth your previous employer, they could picture you doing the same thing to them in the near future. Instead, play it safe and talk about what you learned at your previous company and what you’re looking for in your next role.

4 | Show your excitement

Ask great questions. People who care about a subject want to know as much as possible about it. Asking why the company adopted a new advertising plan or soliciting the interviewer for their thoughts on why the firm recently was named to a list of great places to work demonstrates admirable curiosity. Such detailed questions also show you’ve done your homework—another sign of a passionate candidate.

Go the extra mile. For people who are passionate about what they do, going above and beyond often comes naturally. Hiring managers can’t help but notice genuine actions, so don’t be afraid to be yourself.

Reiterate interest afterward. Lastly, solidify your passion as the real deal with an impressive follow-up. A heartfelt thank-you note displays gratitude as well as provides further opportunity to share something about yourself or your excitement about the position.

– Beth Braccio Hering, Career Advice Writer. Source: Flexjobs

Scouted’s take:

We’re about it. We’ve seen great candidates get turned down for jobs simply because they couldn’t iterate their passion for the company or specific role. Before you go into your interview, know why you want this specific role at this specific company and communicate that clearly to your hiring managers.

5 | Remember to follow up with a thank you note.

“Right after the interview (no more than 12-24 hours) is when you should send a thank you note to your interviewer. However, there are three common mistakes to avoid: 1. Do not group all interviewers on one thank you note. Send each individual a separate note. 2. It’s OK if your thank you note is sent via email, but do not forget to secure the email address of every interviewer before you leave, hang up the phone, or disconnect the video call. 3. Do not make your thank you note boring and predictable. Take notes during each interview, and capture unique things each interviewer said or asked you about. Then incorporate those into your thank you notes. Refer back to something you discussed or learned from them.”

– Dana Manciagli, President of Job Search Master Class®. Source: Forbes

Scouted’s take:

Long story short: out of all the applicant’s applying to the role you want, you don’t want to be the one who forgot the thank you note. It’s a small gesture, but it makes a difference.

In short, be sure you enter every interview prepared, passionate, and grateful. What’s the best piece of resume advice you’ve received? Let us know in the comments below!

Topics:

Candidates, Climb the Ladder

Climb the Ladder

10 Startups We’re Excited About This Month

By Scouted

Scouted was a hiring marketplace that matched candidates to roles based on potential, serving clients from high-growth startups to Fortune 500 companies.

7 min read • Originally published December 20, 2019 / Updated March 19, 2026

By Scouted

Scouted was a hiring marketplace that matched candidates to roles based on potential, serving clients from high-growth startups to Fortune 500 companies.

7 min read • Originally published December 20, 2019 / Updated March 19, 2026

Startup jobs are becoming more and more popular, not just among Scouted candidates, but job-seekers everywhere. The idea of getting your hands dirty, wearing multiple hats while simultaneously learning valuable skills, and making a difference from day one appeals to a lot of people.

While startup life can be demanding (ie. the wearing multiple hats thing and the potential, nay, guarantee for some late nights), they come with a lot of upsides as well. They often allow employees to own stock in the company, provide (at least the occasional) free lunch, offer more or unlimited vacation time, flexible work hours, and usually have a more collaborative environment.

Do you have the startup spark in your eye?

This week at Scouted, we wanted to highlight several startups we’re – really – excited about this month. Some of them you’ll find are hiring on Scouted. Some, we just had to mention anyway.

Also read: how to get a job at a startup

Catchafire

Catchafire is a social enterprise on a mission to realize the future of social impact work. The company’s goal is to catalyze greater impact in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors by connecting nonprofits with talented people who want to do pro bono work (read: they’re like a Scouted for non-profits). The team is comprised of diverse thinkers and people on the constant pursuit of professional and personal growth. This is the perfect opportunity for smart, ego-free do-gooders who want to change the status quo while working with an incredibly talented and impressive team of people.

Check out open roles on Catchafire here.

Boxed

What if you could get things at a wholesale price instead of the retail price while shopping? With fast and free shipping and no membership fees, Boxed does that for you. The only condition is that you will be only shipped a box. Their team tests and selects a range of the most popular products so buyers can be confident in your purchase. Shop tried-and-true household favorites as well as new, hand-picked brands.

Boxed has received $243 million in funding. Currently, it is working as an authentic wholesaling store that sets it apart from the rest. Simplified shopping is something we all can look forward to, thanks to this startup. (Source: Cloudways.com)

Garner Health

Garner Health wants to help employers give their employees access to the best quality healthcare providers. By conducting analytics on individual doctors, changing the financial incentives baked into normal health insurance plans, and offering consumer-friendly tools, Garner guarantees employers a 10% savings on healthcare costs while improving quality outcomes for employees.

But here’s what makes Garner awesome: The company is led by Nick Reber who was on the leadership team at Oscar Health and saw the company through early-stage growth and success. And with Reber at the helm, Garner has secured venture funding and is ready to build out its pre-launch team in the areas of data science, product, and engineering. Not to mention the competitive salary, early-stage experience, and a high-energy team.

Check out open roles at Garner Health on Scouted!

Duolingo

Language-learning app Duolingo has opened up new opportunities for smartphone users. Being bilingual looks great on a resume, can open life up to new cultural opportunities, and research has shown it can even delay symptoms of dementia. Now with a new round of funding from Google parent Alphabet, the fast-growing language-learning platform is looking to expand its technology, marketing and staff.

Duolingo, which offers the most-downloaded education app in the world, just raised $30 million in a Series F funding from Alphabet’s CapitalG late-stage growth venture fund, becoming the first Pittsburgh-based tech start-up valued at more than $1 billion by venture capital investors. Duolingo’s new valuation is $1.5 billion. It has raised a total of $138 million, including from existing investors such as Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, Union Square Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, Drive Capital, Ashton Kutcher, and Tim Ferriss. (Source: CNBC.com)

OpenInvest

Openinvest is a mission-oriented fin-tech startup that has built technology to support socially responsible investments. It was started by ex-Bridgewater employees (who we know well – they are super smart and really good guys), and they just closed their Series-A funding last year (from top VCs including Andreessen Horowitz, System IQ, QED, etc). They are in an exciting growth stage and gearing up for the next round! They have a transparent and supportive culture, and they are dedicated to using technology to bring honesty and transparency to financial services while making socially responsible investing accessible to everyone.

They are looking for a super-smart, highly analytical and creative thinker to join their team as Financial Product Manager. One of their financial products is essentially an index fund with an ESG overlay, and you’d be responsible for the conceptual thinking and idea generation to power/optimize their algorithm, and then work with their tech team to implement your thinking. You’d be in the thick of it, directly influencing their IP. Experience in a highly analytical role at an asset management fund/investment management fund is required, but experience in (software) product management is not (but an interest in PM is definitely a plus). This is a great opportunity to join a mission-oriented startup well-positioned for success and to get in on the ground floor before they take off!

Check out OpenInvest roles on Scouted here!

Hinge

Hinge is the dating app that’s great at one thing: setting you up on great dates. That’s why they learn your type based on the people you like, show off your personality with icebreaker prompts, and let you know who likes you so you can easily start a conversation. So if you’re looking for a BFF, a job, a pen pal, or a hookup, Hinge isn’t the place for you. Hinge is the dating app made for dating, and they’re good at what they do. On Hinge, 3 out of 4 first dates lead to second dates, and they’re the #1 dating app mentioned in The New York Times wedding section. (Source: AngelList)

Alma Health

Alma simplifies access to high quality, results-oriented therapists and coaches. Their mission is to make meaningful therapy and coaching experiences easily available in uplifting and supportive environments that celebrate self-growth. To do that, they bring together communities of independent providers and support them through shared access to beautifully-designed office space, best-in-class technology, and community events and training focused on delivering high-impact care for clients.

Alma is pioneering a new practice model for therapists to elevate the therapy experience and simplify access to care. They are creating a space for mental healthcare professionals to build co-practicing communities powered by technology and shared services. End goal? Making mental healthcare simpler for those who need it. This past June, Alma Health closed their Series A round of funding, backed by First Round, Box Group, and Primary Ventures just to make a few of their top investors.

Check out open roles for Alma Health here!

ClassPass

A fitness membership that lets you enjoy diverse and exciting ways to work out. Founded in 2013, ClassPass is the leading membership to the world’s largest fitness network. With over 8,000 partners in 39 cities worldwide, ClassPass provides members a variety of fitness experiences to choose from, including yoga, cycling, Pilates, barre, running, strength training, dance, sports, videos and more. Recognized as one of Forbes’s Next Billion Dollar Startups, ClassPass leverages proprietary technology to dynamically merchandise and surface over a million fitness classes for a seamless booking experience that facilitates discovery. (Source: AngelList)

Blend

Blend makes the process of getting a loan simpler, faster, and safer. With its digital lending platform, Blend helps financial institutions including Wells Fargo and U.S. Bank increase productivity and deliver exceptional customer experiences. The company regularly processes nearly $2 billion in mortgages and consumer loans daily, helping millions of consumers get into homes and gain access to the capital they need to lead better lives.

At Blend, they’re building a digital platform for lenders and borrowers that makes the experience more modern, transparent, and accessible to traditionally underserved customers. Their platform vastly simplifies the loan application process and includes a simple, responsive, borrower platform and a full-featured lender experience. Blend engineers work across the enterprise and consumer software.

Founded in 2012 by a group of former Palantir engineers, Blend raised $130M from Temasek and General Atlantic in the summer of 2019. (Source: AngelList)

Morty

Morty is on a mission to revolutionize the outdated mortgage industry by letting people shop, compare, and close any mortgage option from any lender, completely online. They understand that buying a home is a big deal – and want to create a world in which this critical financial transaction is both accessible and simple. Morty just raised their Series A in August of this year (from top VCs like Thrive Capital and Lerner Hippeau) and is definitely a company to watch.

Why Morty? They’ve just moved into a sleek SoHo office (we’ve visited, it’s great) and perks are top-notch: Unlimited PTO, 100% employer-paid healthcare, a NEW MacBook pro, a stocked kitchen, team happy hours, and more!

Look for open roles at Morty on Scouted!

Startups are an exciting place to have a career. Learning opportunities are essentially endless and working with a team who’s passionate and where good ideas are truly valued can be really meaningful. Check out Scouted for even more startups and exciting companies who are hiring passionate and creative thinkers.

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