How to Get a Job in Venture Capital: A 12-Month Plan

To get a job in venture capital, in our view, it helps to have four things a resume cannot carry: a written thesis that says what you would invest in, a track record of companies you found early, a target list of firms where that thesis fits, and a sample deal memo that shows how you think.

Build those four artifacts over twelve months, run a steady outreach cadence against them, and you can be a credible candidate when a seat opens.

Venture tends to hire on evidence, and you can build evidence from the outside. That's our long-held advice for breaking into venture: start doing the job before anyone gives you permission. This guide is one month-by-month version of that plan, so adjust it to your situation.

What it takes to get a job in venture capital

Venture hiring is largely unstructured. Yale School of Management's career development office tells its students that venture recruiting does not follow traditional on-campus timelines, that there is no centralized job board, and that firms "tend to hire people they know or those who are well-referred," with roles appearing at short notice. Aggregators such as John Gannon's VC jobs list, which sorts openings by city and by title, catch part of the market; the venture capital job boards guide covers the rest.

So there's no calendar to plan around and seats open quietly. You usually can't time an application window. What you can do is build a body of work that makes you an obvious person to call, and make sure the right people have seen it. The plan below is written for twelve months alongside a full-time job. If you're still choosing between routes into the industry, a good starting point is how to become a venture capitalist.

Four artifacts a job search can run on

Most of the schedule below exists to produce one of these.

Keep all four in one shared folder you can link in any conversation. A candidate who answers "what would you invest in?" with a link stands out.

Months 1 to 3: thesis, target list, and the first conversations

• Pick the lane. One stage (pre-seed, seed, Series A, growth) and one or two sectors where your background lets you learn faster than a generalist.
• Write the thesis and publish it. A public post, a newsletter, a LinkedIn series. Publishing forces the argument to be specific, and gives people something to forward.
• Build the target list. 30 to 50 firms, with fund size, stage, last fundraise date, and the associate or principal at each who does your job. Firms that have just closed a fund are often the ones adding headcount.
• Start the log. Every company you meet or read about, dated, with two sentences on what you thought. Twelve months of it is very hard to fake.
• Cadence this quarter: two conversations a week, roughly 25 by the end of month three, weighted toward people one step ahead of you rather than partners.

In our view, sector choice matters more than usual right now. Carta's State of Private Markets report for Q1 2026 found that more than 60 cents of every venture dollar on its platform went to AI companies, the highest share it has recorded, so fluency in AI, or in a vertical where AI is being applied, looks like a live hiring advantage.

Months 4 to 6: build the track record

• Source for real. Send founders you meet to investors who fit, with a two-paragraph note on why. In our view it's one of the most reliable ways to become known to a fund, and it costs you little. Sourcing is much of the job; see why we hunt for deals rather than wait for them.
• Write the first memo. Pick a company you like, build the cap table and a returns model, and recommend. The venture capital modeling test guide shows a format many firms use.
• Run a mock portfolio. Ten companies you would have backed, with reasoning and a tracker you update.
• Get structured reps. The slowest part of this phase is often getting near real deals. 1752vc's Venture Fellow program compresses it into an eight-week block of live virtual training built around live companies rather than coursework: case studies, real pitch materials, diligence on businesses that are raising now, and deal sourcing. With rolling applications, the eight weeks can sit inside months 4 to 6.
• Cadence this quarter: two conversations a week, plus one sourced introduction a week to someone on the target list.

Months 7 to 9: the outreach cadence

Now the artifacts do the work. A cadence that tends to hold up:

1. Ten new outreach messages a week, each referencing something specific: a portfolio company, a post they wrote, a company you think they should see.
2. Lead with the company, not the ask. The message that tends to get answered is "here is a founder in your thesis you have probably not met," not "can I pick your brain."
3. Expect a low hit rate. Mergers & Inquisitions' guide to venture internships tells candidates to expect roughly a 5 to 10 percent response rate on cold outreach, which is why the volume matters.
4. Follow up twice, then stop. Once after ten days, once after a month with new information.
5. Re-contact warm replies quarterly with something useful. In our view, many venture hires come from a name a partner already knows.
6. Track it. Firm, person, date, what you sent, what came back. It shows which sectors are answering.

Months 10 to 12: convert to interviews and offers

• Tell the network what you want, precisely: stage, sector, city, and three firms you would join tomorrow. Vague asks get vague help.
• Apply with the folder. Lead the resume with deals sourced, memos written and companies helped, not with job titles; the venture capital resume guide shows one way to structure it.
• Offer trial work. A part-time sourcing project, a diligence assignment, a fixed-term fellowship. Firms often hire people who have already done the job for them.
• Prepare the interview set. Why venture, why this stage, why this firm, three companies you would show them this month, and a live deal discussion. The venture capital interview questions guide covers the range.
• Know the number before you negotiate. Venture5's 2025 Venture Capital Salary Survey of 700-plus US professionals puts median base salary at about $80K for analysts and $130K for associates; the venture capital salary guide breaks down the rest, including where carry starts.

What hiring managers often screen for

1. Deal flow. Have you introduced the firm to a company it took a meeting with?
2. Judgment on paper. Two pages on why a company will or will not work, with numbers.
3. Sector depth. A market you know better than the partner does.
4. Founder empathy. Something built, sold or shipped, or close work with people who have.
5. Analytical fluency. Cap table, dilution and a returns model without help.
6. Follow-through. Introductions delivered, deadlines met, founders treated well on a pass.
7. Fit with stage. Growth funds test modeling depth; seed funds test sourcing and people judgment.
8. A reason for this firm. Portfolio knowledge, thesis alignment, and a plan for your first 90 days.

A resume shows few of those.

What the market looks like while you run the plan

The Q2 2026 PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor reports that three firms, Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive Capital and Founders Fund, took in 48.1 percent of all US venture capital raised in the first half of 2026, that megadeals of $100M or more captured 87.5 percent of the $412.7 billion deployed, and that first-time fund formation is on pace for its lowest year since 2016. Emerging managers have historically been the most accessible entry point, so fewer new funds likely means a longer search. Plan for the full twelve months.

"But venture hiring is just who you know"

Partly true. Yale's own guidance says firms hire people they know or who are well-referred, and some seats go to a partner's former colleague before a posting exists. Without that network, a twelve-month plan can feel like homework for a test that's already been graded.

But Who you know isn't fixed. The artifacts are how strangers become people a partner knows: the founder you sent over, the memo someone forwarded, the thesis post that got shared. In our view, the network tends to follow the work more often than the reverse. It won't open every door, but it gives you a reason to be in the room.

Our take

Build the four artifacts, keep the cadence steady, and treat the first year as a body of work rather than a job hunt. Your mileage will vary: a strong operator in a hot sector might get hired in three months on reputation alone, and a large growth fund may recruit more like banking or consulting.

For career switchers, lead with the market you know better than most investors. For early-career candidates, lead with the log and the sourced introductions, the hardest things to fake.

Common mistakes when trying to get a job in venture capital

• Mass-applying to posted roles with no relationship at the firm. Yale's guidance is explicit that firms hire people they know or who are well-referred.
• Leading with credentials. A banking or consulting background signals rigor but says little about judgment on pre-revenue companies.
• Producing nothing. The thesis, the log, the list and the memo take an hour a day. Candidates without them can be hard to tell apart.
• Ignoring small funds and platform roles. Emerging managers and platform teams open seats more often than brand-name investment teams, and they can lead to the same place. The venture capital fellowship guide covers structured ways in.
• Running outreach in bursts. Ten messages a week for nine months usually beats 200 in a fortnight, because you are waiting for a seat to open, not for a reply.

The bottom line

Twelve months is a long time to work toward a job that may not be posted yet. That's the point: when the seat opens, the work is already visible.

A resume says you could do the job. A folder shows you already started.