Reflecting on my two years at CoLearn
Not a career advice. Just one person's opinion.
Hi, I’m Evan 👋 Did you know that you can also connect with me on Twitter 😱? You can follow me @evanfabio98. If you like my other articles, don’t hesitate to subscribe!
Last month was the last month of my 2 incredible years at CoLearn. I’m sad, but I’m glad it happened. To a lot of people, 2 years doesn’t sound like much, and maybe they’re right. But I’m a huge believer that it’s not about how long you stay at a company, it’s about how much you grow.
I joined CoLearn 3 months after it was founded. I joined as a digital marketing hire, and later on, I took over the growth role in the company. Since then, CoLearn has scaled to millions of users, hundreds of employees across multiple countries, and reached centaur status, all in 2 years. I’ve worked with a lot of incredible talents to solve challenging growth problems in the company. If I attempt to write about every learning that I got, it might take like 3 separate articles.
But this being a reflection, I will share some things about building a career that might be useful for other young professionals who look to build theirs. Again, the theme of this article is sharing my own learnings and therefore, please take it as such. This is not career advice. This is one person’s reflection of his lived experience.
Luck matters.
Let me start this article by saying that luck plays an important part in my journey. I always tell my friend that I’m lucky in my career, and I’m being dead serious every single time. Yes, I still had to learn, adapt, and do the work. I also contributed to its growth. But a lot of it are due to things outside of my control. Some examples that I can think of:
Luck #1: At the time, I had the privilege to take a high-risk opportunity. I wasn’t the breadwinner that I am today, and that allowed me to choose a high-reward opportunity. I have my parents to thank for that privilege or else, I would’ve taken a much safer career path.
Luck #2: I hit a jackpot by joining a high-growth company in its infancy stage. Hindsight is 20/20, but when I joined, CoLearn was just 3 months old, still in seed stage, and its initial business model was helping offline tutoring centers go online. All of a sudden, Covid hit and nobody went outside. Not only was it unthinkable that CoLearn would be this big today, it was hard to even think that we would survive to the end of 2020.
Luck #3: One of the reasons I took over the growth role was due to my then-manager leaving just before our launch. Somebody had to step up to take over his role. Had he not left, I wouldn’t have been exposed to the same learning opportunities and responsibilities that allowed me to grow really fast.
Those are just 3 examples of my personal luck and I’m sure I miss many more, but you get the gist of it. It’s delusional to think that career success is a function of just my own effort. It’s a lot more than that. The good news is, you can make ‘luck’ as your ally by doing things within your control.
Bet on momentum
When considering where to work, consider momentum. Momentum can be about your specific role (PM / Marketing / Designers / Engineers), it can be about the company, it can be about the vertical, or it can even be about the investors.
In my case, the primary reason I joined CoLearn was because it was backed by Sequoia. I didn’t know a lot, but I knew Sequoia’s reputation as a great company builder of our time, not just an investor. Second, it was also because I saw the momentum in my role, specifically on marketing. I didn’t really think about the state of CoLearn at the time. So it’s great if you can check all the boxes (the right role, the right company, the right vertical, backed by the right investors). But in my experience, just checking 2 or 3 out of 4 is (probably) good enough.
Join early
Betting on the right momentum is not enough. It matters as much to join at the right time, especially if you’re not assuming a leadership role. When you assume an entry or middle-level role in a promising startup, even the upside might be somewhat limited. Of course, joining early means you’re exposed to more risks, and that’s why it’s important to check if you have the privilege to take this path. But if you’re able to bet on the right momentum + join early, it’s like taking a seat in a rocket-ship.
People matters
No matter how great a product is, it’s the people that matters. People are the main reason I greatly enjoyed my time in CoLearn. When we talk about people, it covers several areas:
The team — When choosing a company or a project, prioritize who you’ll be working with. Work with people that you enjoy working with and those that you can learn from.
The boss — Work for a boss that pushes you to be better, that listens to you, and has your back when things go south.
The hiring philosophy — There’s a saying that “A players hire A players, whereas B players hire C players”. This is very true. Co-founder & CEO Abhay Saboo once told me “It’s okay if the person you hire makes more than you as long as s/he does a great job and makes your life easier” and I couldn’t agree more.
Don’t be transactional
One of the most important things I’ve learned during my time in CoLearn actually came during a Sequoia Surge session when Rajan Anandan, Managing Director of Sequoia Capital, gave a talk about building an enduring relationship in your professional career.
His point was simple — “Don’t be transactional”.
Connect with a genuine intention. Don’t just communicate when you need something. Add values voluntarily. It’s okay to be vulnerable sometimes, because vulnerability creates a shared bond that goes deeper beyond business relationships.
To this day, I still fail at doing these consistently. But I consistently try to be better at it every day, and thanks to this advice, I’ve also made new friends along the way.
Invest (time and money) in yourself
Time. Since 2021, I have dedicated ~15% of my weekly working hours to develop myself. That was an average of 8 hours per week. Sometimes I could squeeze that into my working hours. The other times, I did that outside of my working hour.
Money. I also invested quite heavily on myself. 10% of my annual salary was spent on online courses and paid newsletter. My best investment so far is joining Reforge and subscribing to Lenny’s Newsletter.
You can’t expect to bring fresh ideas and deliver if you only focus on doing your desk job. Leveling-up is part of the job. Make sure to stay ready when a golden opportunity arises.
Set ambitious goals
I had always been terrified of ambitious goals. In fact, I still am. But as counterintuitive as it sounds, I wouldn’t be where I am today if not for those ambitious goals that my boss gave me.
Setting up ambitious goals can be scary, and rightfully so. If not done correctly, it can be demoralizing. That’s why it’s important to communicate the intention of ambitious goals.
Ambitious goals are set to push the boundary — People rise to the height of ambition. Give the same person 2 wildly different targets, and s/he will think of wildly different ways to achieve it.
Don’t punish people — Since the nature of ambitious goals is to push, then don’t punish people for not achieving it. There’s a huge difference between punishing and holding others accountable. Make sure to know the differences.
I have Abhay, CoLearn’s CEO and my then-manager, to thank for instilling this mindset and pushing me to be better everyday. My time in CoLearn taught me that it’s better to set ambitious goals that you can’t always meet, than to sell yourself short.
Know when to stop and when to go
Work-life balance is a spectrum. Just because you pursue career growth, it doesn’t mean you have to completely throw away your health and social life. You can always “flip the switch”.
There are some periods where you’re assigned a very important project and you need to work much harder than you usually do. During this mode, you might find it hard to squeeze in gym sessions and weekly hangouts to your schedule. Focus on getting through this and making the most of it because this is where most of your career growth will happen.
Then, there are other times where you are not assigned a do-or-die project and you have more room for error. Use this moment to replenish yourself and do things that recharge you.
Hustling doesn’t have to be forever if you know where the high-impact activities are.
To Summarize
My time in CoLearn taught me how luck matters a lot. Most of the variables that determine your career outcome are something that you can’t fully control. That being said, there are ways you can increase the size of your “luck”.
Bet on momentum. Pick your own rocket-ship and join them.
Join early. Joining a rocket-ship is great, but it’s even better if you join early.
People matter. When choosing to work in a company or a project, always optimize for the people that you’ll be working with. This includes your team and your boss.
Don’t be transactional. Be genuine, don’t contact them when you need it, and show vulnerability to create a shared bond.
Invest in yourself. Allocate a fraction of your weekly working hour to develop yourself. Have a budget to sharpen your craft.
Set ambitious goals. Push your team’s and your own boundaries by setting up ambitious goals. It’s better to set ambitious goals that you can’t always meet than to sell yourself short.
Know when to go and when to stop. Know where the high-impact activities are so you don’t have to hustle all the time.
Last but not least, I’d like to use this opportunity to express the immense proudness I’ve felt watching the company evolve through these years. What an honor it has been to evolve together alongside the amazing people with whom I shared thousands of Zoom meetings with.
Once again, thank you.
Sincerely,
Evan.
Know anyone who might benefit from this article? Share this post and help them become better at building their careers.