25 | KATHRYN MINSHEW - CEO of The Muse

This week, Cory speaks to entrepreneur and author Kathryn Minshew, the founder and CEO of The Muse. The Muse is the fastest growing career discovery platform for 50+ million professionals a year and helps over 700 companies looking to hire talent and grow. Kathryn is also the co-author of “The New Rules of Work: The Modern Playbook for Navigating Your Career,” available on Amazon and other retailers.

In the episode, Kathryn tells us about going from working in international relations to McKenzie and then in technology, gives tips and guidance on finding the right career path, how to approach employers the right way, and where job seekers go wrong.

“I DIDN’T START THE MUSE BECAUSE I HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS, I STARTED IT BECAUSE I NEEDED THEM.”

As the Founder and CEO of Founder of The Muse, Kathryn Minshew (@KMin) spends “every day making work more human.” The Muse is an online career resource that gives a behind-the-scenes look at opportunities and companies. “We believe that you can and should love your job—and be successful at it—and we want to help you make that happen.”

Kathryn joined Cory Levy on OFF RCRD to talk about her journey as an entrepreneur and what she has learned about work and hiring.

Kathryn didn’t always want to become an entrepreneur. “As I started to get to know people who worked in the startup sector who were building businesses from scratch, I just fell in love,” says Kathryn. At the age of 25, Kathryn, who originally planned on studying and working in international relations, started The Muse, which was her second company and has grown significantly over the past seven years. The company reaches around 50 million people a year in over 100 countries, and works with around 700 employers who are customers of The Muse. Their team now features around 125 full-time employees, mostly based out of New York City.

Similar to her company, Kathryn has grown as well. “I have absolutely loved it (being an entrepreneur), but I think it surprised me how much I’ve had to learn about topics that I didn’t know anything about.” From raising venture capital (over $20M) to managing a large team of employees, Kathryn has had to pick up new skills throughout her journey, and has learned a lot about jobs and hiring through her own experiences as an employer.

The New Rules of Work

In mid-2018, Kathryn and The Muse co-founder Alex Cavoulacos published The New Rules of Work, which took the lessons they learned from years of running their company to give to millions of people across the country in a rule-like format.

One of the surprises that came from writing this book, according to Kathryn, was what readers resonated with, which was the idea of starting with your values.

“Most career advice; it has you start with ‘what do you think you want to do or what are you good at?’ We said, of course, that’s important but before that, what do you value? Is it flexibility, is it creativity and autonomy, is it compensation or prestige. There’s so many different things that a career can give you. What is it that you want, and that changes, right? Not only from person to person but it changes at different parts of your career. What you want straight out of college might be different than what we what you want five or 10 years later and that’s okay.”

Kathryn and Cory also touched on mistakes that ruin many careers before they even start. “I’m constantly amazed by how many people will sometimes put at risk getting a job that they’re otherwise highly qualified for because of something small.” Kathryn stresses the importance of the basics like a strong handshake, looking people in the eye, knowing how to interview, and understanding the company. “Even if it’s just 15 minutes, brush up on the basics of applying to a job and interviewing,” says Kathryn.