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Issue 4: What Comes After the Chief of Staff Role?
As you look past your Chief of Staff role, what do you do after?
Welcome back, aspiring & current Chiefs of Staff!
📣 I’m running a compensation survey to close out the year and could use your help! If you’re a current Chief of Staff (or were one earlier this year) and are willing to share your compensation for this survey, please take 4 minutes to complete this survey. We’re already at 2️⃣5️⃣0️⃣➕ responses, can we get to 5️⃣0️⃣0️⃣?!
All data will be kept anonymous. The survey will close Friday, November 25th, 11:59PM EST with the results released in December 💜 Special thanks to Dee for helping me put this together and collate the results as well!
If you’re not a Chief of Staff but still want to get the results, make sure you’re subscribed to this newsletter!
What comes after the Chief of Staff role?
As I’ve been chatting with many people who are looking to step into their first Chief of Staff role, a common question I get is, “What do I do after a Chief of Staff role?” The day to day of a Chief of Staff role can be so varied and so figuring out what happens next can often feel like quite a conundrum. In my experience, these are the top post-Chief of Staff routes that many Chiefs of Staff consider and step into after their tenure.
1️⃣ Becoming a CEO/Founder - Many individuals take on a Chief of Staff role because they have aspirations of becoming a founder one day. What better way to learn the ropes of how to build a company than by being the right hand to a CEO and having the access to the leadership of an organization? Because much of your day to day is spent mirroring or complementing your principal, you’re uniquely positioned to be able to learn the same lessons as your CEO in a “lower stakes” setting. A primary reason why the Chief of Staff role can be so compelling is because you’re often sitting at the decision making table and having a chance to voice your perspectives and opinions without the burden of the company on you. That last part you can save for when you start your own company. Some examples of Chiefs of Staff turned Founders:
Anuj Abrol - former Chief of Staff to Justin Kan (co-founder of Twitch)
Jake Bengtzen - former Chief of Staff at Finicity (acquired by Mastercard)
2️⃣ Heading up a business unit within/outside of their org - As a Chief of Staff, you gain exposure to so many of the different functions of the business. You’re offered a wide range of skills to build upon and it’s also a great way to start eliminating some of the functions you’re less enthusiastic about. Maybe you want to lean more into the People Operations of your role or the Business Development function. For me personally, I learned that I will never be an accountant. Chiefs of Staff can use the role to decide on a more specialized function after experiencing many different responsibilities and have the added bonus of having already built credibility in that department by nature of the role. Examples of Chiefs of Staff who have gone onto lead business functions within or outside of their orgs:
Joy Banfield - former Chief of Staff, now VP of People Operations
Lucy Luo - former Chief of Staff, now Director of International Growth at First AML
Lavanya Garg - Chief of Staff, now also Associate Director (Partnerships, People Operations) at Good Business Lab
3️⃣ Taking a second (or third or fourth) Chief of Staff role - This path is one that I’ve seen grow in popularity within the last few years - mainly because information and resourcing around the Chief of Staff role has grown as well. It’s becoming more and more common for Chiefs of Staff to take on a second or even third or fourth Chief of Staff role now that they’re armed with the knowledge of how to better succeed as one. Maybe you enjoyed your time as an early stage Chief of Staff and now want to experience try your hand at a larger company. Maybe you really enjoyed taking the company from Series A to Series B and have found your niche in leading scaling companies. Taking another Chief of Staff role now that you know how to best stand by and serve a principal could very well be your next step. A few multiple tenure Chiefs of Staff:
Nadiya Hayes - former Chief of Staff at LinkedIn, now Chief of Staff at Poshmark
Donnell Mata - former Chief of Staff at Pampered Chef, now Chief of Staff at Point B
4️⃣ ⭐️ Bonus - whatever you want! As I like to tell just about every aspiring Chief of Staff I talk to, “The world is your oyster!” After being a Chief of Staff, it seems that there isn’t a role that you couldn’t take on. If the above three paths weren’t enough to choose from, check out these other roads Chiefs of Staff have taken:
Gillian O’Brien - Founder turned Chief of Staff, now Founder in Residence
Sam Massari - former Chief of Staff to the VP of Engineering, now Engineering Manager
Mary Ostfai - Chief of Staff turned Executive Coach
Clara Ma (me!) - Chief of Staff turned Community Builder, now writer of this newsletter
Open Chief of Staff Roles:
I’ll be sharing a few of the roles that I’m working on each issue. If you’re interested in any of these positions, reply to this newsletter with a copy of your resume and I’ll follow up!
Signos - Chief of Staff to the CEO (current CoS is looking for her replacement)
Industry: Health, Wellness & Fitness
Series A, raised $17M, start date end of November preferred
Location: Remote, US based
Preferred Qualifications:
5-7 years of experience w/o an MBA or 2-3 years of experience post MBA
Strong finance background
Familiarity with 3-statement forecasts
Warmly - Chief of Staff to the CEO
Industry: Software Development, Zoom App
Seed-stage start-up backed by Zoom, NFX, F-Prime, Y-Combinator
Location: Remote, US based
Preferred Qualifications:
3+ years combined experience in senior operating role at a startup, management consulting, or VC
Experience with data analysis
TANG - Chief of Staff to the CEO
Industry: FinTech
Seed, team of 12
Location: Remote, US based
Preferred Qualifications:
2-3 years of consulting/finance/M&A experience
A crucial eye for detail
Additional Chief of Staff Related Reads:
Preventing Groupthink: The Role of the Chief of Staff
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👋🏼 Until the next issue,
Clara
PS: I’m going to work hard to keep all the content in my newsletter free so that it’s accessible for everyone, but if you want to help support my writing endeavors, you can buy me a matcha 🍵 Special shoutouts to Pascal, Cynthia, Laurie, and Eric for supporting the last issue!