How can you survive when your startup sinks?

Q: Hank has lots of stock options and a great but taxing job with a startup. He has been a devoted employee for more than two years. Yesterday, management announced to everyone that the funding has dried up. The place will shut down in six weeks. What's your advice to Hank?

Nick's reply: A startup usually won't issue a "Save yourself!" warning unless it's really convinced the end is near. Hoping against hope that your employer won't go out of business is a poor way to manage your career -- though many people fall victim to wishful thinking. The last two options in this poll are action-oriented, and they're the best ones. Hank has to act, and he has to use the best resources at his disposal to help him find his next job.

While last-minute funding might be obtained to save the company, it's not a good bet. Waiting for that could put Hank behind in his search for a new job.

Starting a job search immediately is a good idea, but quitting the company to hunt full time would disconnect Hank from daily contact with some of his best inside contacts: his bosses and the investors who backed the company. While his relationships with other employees might help Hank through this difficult time (and possibly lead to another job), it's the bosses at the company who can help him the most. They likely have more and better high-level contacts in the industry than staffers do, and the company's investors are more likely to help the management team land new jobs. (That may not sound fair, but it's reality. Investors will sometimes juggle managers between companies they have interest in.)

Hank's devotion to the company for the past two years has likely earned him the respect of a few managers in the company. Most of these managers will be out job hunting, too, and when they get situated they may be in a position to hire the best people they know -- people like Hank.

If there's an outside chance the company can bail itself out, Hank's best bet again is to stay close to his managers. While he may fear that he's very likely to lose his job, the same esprit de corps that gave birth to the startup can sometimes yield new opportunities if the company is reconfigured after a failure. The only way to capitalize on this is to stay close to those who have a vested interest in the business.

One thing Hank may not have considered is that he may have contacts that could help his boss land a good job. He should make introductions and share these contacts. This is a form of career insurance. It's not uncommon for a manager in such a situation to attempt to bring the entire team to a new company.

None of this is to suggest that Hank should ignore his co-workers or an aggressive job search of his own. But if there's any action afoot, it's most likely at the management level. And that's where Hank should focus most of his energies if he still values the working relationships he has developed at the startup. Good people tend to stick together when they can.

Copyright 2008. Distributed by Universal Press Syndicate

Nick Corcodilos is author of "Ask The Headhunter: Reinventing the Interview to Win the Job" and the host of www.asktheheadhunter.com. He can be reached by e-mail at seattle@asktheheadhunter.com or at North Bridge Group, P.O. Box 600, Lebanon, NJ 08833. Sorry, no personal replies.