How career importance change over time

We had conducted a survey of 100 people to see what people found important at different age groups. Asking people about building a startup, having a family, changing careers, where they live and if being around the right people mattered. We specifically asked if you could restart your life today, what would you do?

What's interesting is you can see a natural progression with the change of age. Ages 18-24 said if they could do it all over again, they would focus on creating a startup. A vast majority would take the time to start a company and build their wealth that way.

In the next group, we chose 25-34. This group chose being around the right people as their number one. At this age many reflected on who they choose as friends. I can imagine, they are reflecting on what they did in college and who the hung around. I heard a story from Michael Seilbel, the YC director say that he went to a party and there was a lady there who tried to start a company. She had a hard time finding a technical person. Michael asked her did she have any friends from college. She said she didn't make the friends. I think a lot of people begin to reflect less on what they know and more on who they know.

At the ages of 35-44, many people are back into the startup ideology, but not by much. Many people during this time are really beginning to care about family. If they could start again, they are putting more emphasis on family and how it matters more to them now.

Between the ages of 45-54, it's clear that people care a lot more about family. If they could start over they would tell their former selves they would spend more time on having a family and preserving it. This time the startup takes a backseat and becomes #2 as it was formerly #1 by shear margins.

Though the sample size of the people older than 54 is small, it still points out that it matters to them where they live, being around the right people and family. Work is less meaningful to them if the could start over again. it shows their personal lives are far more important than their working lives.

From analyzing the data of this one question, if people were to start over again, it appears only two (2) things matter: 1. Work on a startup or 2. they care about family. The younger individuals care a lot about work. They care a lot of about creating something they can call their own. As people begin to age, their values change. They begin to care more about family and the connections they make. It appears to be the natural progression of things. This sample is just of a 100 people. I'm sure if there was a larger sample size, the data could represent different numbers. Also this dats is not absolute. What people chose has no indication over what they actually do. Many of the people who are older are probably running their own startups.

Why we created Cofounder

When I was in college, I found friends in my class to help me. They were my partners or in other words, the cofounders to my degree.

When I started looking for a job, I latched on to anyone who was able to help. But I didn't have anyone to help me through the process. Even starting a company was very difficult. Some people are lucky enough to have mentors who helped them every step of the way; taught them what to do and not to do. But for the vast majority, this is not the case.

Then it dawned on me, why shouldn't everyone have the support they need. Half the battle is just figuring out what to do. So I dabbled with the idea of taking knowledge from the world and organize it in a way that helps each person where ever they are so they can leap frog to where they want to go. This sound like a tall order. Some told me this was way too large of an idea and I should make this smaller. And I did. I am focused on college students, graduate students, entrepreneurs and startups. But this product will also target investors as well. We will help solve large problems like climate change and so many more issues.

This matters to us because we care about helping people have the tools to get to their desired outcome. The world is noisy, therefore, most people end up following a template that was given to us because we are too scared of the unknown. But we want to help with that. If people are willing to make changes, then we should help provide them with the tools they need to help them make those changes as easy as possible.

We created cofounder because we believe a cofounder shouldn't only exist for a startup. But we believe a cofounder should exist for any endeavor you take on where just one person is just not enough. The world is far more complex and it's challenging for one person to figure it all out. These days you need a team and that's not always possible. So Cofounder is helping you with your own personal team.

Computing the Unique Career Path

Marvel Endgame Scene

Most people think building your career is a linear path. The ideal plan is to go to school and then you find a job. Well that's far from the truth. As a matter of fact that model is more wrong than right. The real world is messy and complex and a lot to do with luck. But what people can do to help maximize their luck is to try their best to figure out how to position themselves. Look at the simplified equation below:

Right field/problem + Hard work + right time + risk + luck = Outsized outcome

The challenge is most people need all five parameters. In some degree, people can control at most 4 out of 5 but more likely 3 of out 5. Working in the right field/problem, hard work and risk are the main factors people can control. Even the right time could be managed. But luck is just something that increases with the function of the increasing the other inputs.

Simply we need something or someone to help go in the right direction. This kind of thing is done through coaches and mentors such as a company called Career Karma. Career Karma helps people change careers by helping them get into tech jobs by joining a boot camp and then help them find a job. Career Karma is the ultimate staffing company for tech. For example Career Karma has a boot camp to teach you how to become an SEO Expert. They are helping people by the millions to change from other fields into and get into tech.

Picture of Ruben Harris, Artur and Timur Meyster, founders of Career Karma

How can someone figure out how to take the best steps? Well, that's the challenge. No one person knows what to do unless they have recognition, meaning they have already went through the experience before. A way to figure this out is to use an AI that uses recognition among many people. Cofounder's goal is to help people step by step so that people are focused on execution.