Dear Candidate,

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Thank you for choosing to be part of Homebase. At Homebase, we believe in alignment of expectations so that there is no ambiguity. We believe that when people are aligned, they can achieve better results together and be more fulfilled at work. Alignment also contributes to a more harmonious and productive work environment. 

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This letter is our attempt to explicate our expectations for everyone in the team. We wanted you to read this letter before you sign the offer letter because we believe it is only fair for you to know ahead of time what you’re signing up for – we don’t want to surprise you with our expectations after you join the company.

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We understand that some of the expectations might not be conventional. There’s a simple reason why: if we do things the conventional way, we’ll end up with conventional results. On average, most startups fail. It really takes extraordinary effort from everyone on the team to will our company to success, so we can’t just stop at conventional ways.

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In reading this letter, if you really don’t see yourself working in such an environment, please do not force yourself to accept the job offer. Homebase is deliberately built not to be suitable for everyone – there is a specific cut of people we’re self-selecting for. 

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Staying at least 6 months

The learning curve at Homebase is steep, and for every person that joins the company, we actually invest a lot time and effort into getting him or her proficient. For an early-stage startup that is resource-strapped, the cost of these investments is amplified. As such, if an intern only joins us for anything less than 6 months, the cost actually significantly outweighs the benefit of bringing him or her in. 

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Consequently, at Homebase, we do not accept interns that cannot commit at least 6 months. To make it fair for both sides, we actually increase the intern’s salary by 1M VND every 4 months; hence, we expect the same level of fairness and commitment on your part.

We understand that anything can happen, and for many interns, adapting to a high-performing professional work environment is not always easy, but should you choose to take up this internship, you need to make sure that you have the resiliency and mental toughness to endure no matter how tough life gets. Let’s be honest: many people give up too easily in life, and when they give up, they always have the most elegant excuses as to why they are giving up. Don’t be like that. Don’t let giving up become a habit. Be strong. Hang in there, and in the process, you’ll build great character.

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Rest assured that the team will be there to support you along the journey. 

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Only take up this internship if you can commit at least 6 months.

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Being versatile

Part of joining an early-stage startup is the opportunity to work on a breadth of tasks both big and small. Internships that are more specialized / narrowly-focused or routine-based are more for bigger companies. 

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For a startup to win, everyone, interns included, have to be fairly versatile and always optimizing for team success rather than individual glory. This means to say, if the team needs support on certain battle fronts momentarily, we may redeploy you to help other departments so as to maximize impact – at least for the time being. 

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We understand this might make you feel like you’re deviating from your plan, but we urge you to keep an open-mind. 

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You may believe that you already know what you want to do after you graduate – most of us who’ve worked long enough, myself included, thought so too when we were young. Chances are, however, you’ll probably end up doing something completely different down the road. Why? Because the world is ever-changing. Your best shot at a good life is to be versatile, adaptable, and open to new possibilities. 

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When we expose you to a variety of tasks that might not fit neatly into your “dream” job scope or field of study, the right mindset is to see these as opportunities to experiment with alternative career paths. Give yourself the chance to try different things while you’re still young.

Rest assured that our priority is definitely still to assign you to do things that you’re passionate about whenever possible. This, we believe, helps to bring out the best in you. 

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Only take up this internship if you’re willing to potentially go beyond just your specialization and open to deviation from your plan.

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Doing menial work

For a team to win, inevitably, there will be work that is less desirable that someone just has to do. Given the lack of resources, startups – actually, all companies – must prioritize their human resource allocation in order to achieve more with less. 

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Naturally, this means that where a menial task can be accomplished by a less costly headcount, it wouldn’t make much sense to deploy a more costly headcount to do so instead – trust us, when you eventually become a manager one day, you’ll do the same.

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Realistically-speaking, even full-timers, all the way to the top, inevitably have to do some menial work – needless to say interns. Interns and first-jobbers often view these menial tasks as a waste of time. That’s actually not how you should view it. 

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Recognize that responsibilities and trust aren’t built overnight. Things often start out small. Think about this: if you were a manager, would you immediately task an intern with high-stake, mission-critical tasks from day one when you don’t even know if the intern is capable or reliable. Over time, however, as the intern continues to deliver, you’ll gradually entrust him/her with more and more challenging, higher-stake tasks. 

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Also, part of what it means to be a team-player is learning to take one for the team (i.e. doing the thankless jobs). Many people call themselves a team-player – just look at all the CVs littered with this word – but when it’s time to take one for the team and do the grunt work, they whine about it. Maybe they will do it once or twice, but after that, they’ll call it quits. That’s not how true team players look like.

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People and companies are not blind; they know when they see a team player. Just ask yourself this: who would you rather work for, or if you’re a manager, who would you rather promote? That self-centered person, or that person who puts team success above him / herself. So, if you want to go far in your career, you’ll need to learn to take-one for the team, and be willing to do the less glamorous work that others shun. In due time, you’ll find yourself rewarded and beloved by the team.

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Rest assured that there isn't much menial work in the company honestly, so this internship wouldn’t be just about doing mind-numbing work. 

 
Only take up this internship if you’re willing to do menial and thankless work every now and then.

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Independent working & learning

As a startup, we’re mostly doing things that have never been done before and figuring things out on the fly. By and large, we do not have all the answers; no one is here to tell us what to do. We’re all expected to be independent, faster learners. 

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This expectation holds true for you too. 

If you’re expecting your seniors to have all the answers and be responsible for your learning journey, like in school, you’ll probably be disappointed to realize that professional working life, not just in startups, is just not like that. In school, you’re the customer, and the school is the service provider; at the workplace, the role is actually reversed (i.e. you’re actually the service provider). You’re paid to add value and produce results for the team, not to learn. (That’s why when you attend university, you pay school fees – not the other way round). 

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But don’t be disheartened. In the midst of doing real work and figuring things out yourself, you’ll find that you have learnt a tonne more than if you were being spoon-fed. This is what is called experiential, real-world learning, and research has shown that this is one of the most powerful forms of learning. 

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Another mistake that interns often make is that they underestimate the importance of developing their soft skills – stakeholder management, collaboration, project management etc. and think its all about technical skills that matter at work. Don’t make that mistake; don’t view learning too narrowly. Learning and growth can come from anywhere. 

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Rest assured that this doesn’t mean that the team wouldn’t be there to teach or help you with anything. We just don’t want you to mistaken this for a school

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Only take up this internship if you think that you can work and learn independently. 

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Working hard

Taking up an internship while studying is a wonderful move as it gives you a significant advantage when you eventually join the workforce upon graduation. However, we hope you’re mentally prepared that this is going to be tiring – that advantage has to be earned after all. We still believe school should be your number one priority, but beyond that, everything else, such as your social life, fun time etc., will have to take a backseat. Each of us only has 24 hours after all, so something has to give. 

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We expect you to be a mature adult that can manage your own time, and it’s not difficult – you’re not the only one that has ever done an internship while studying; countless people have done that without a fuss. 

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If you feel like your school work or next semester is going to be overwhelming, we urge you not to take up this internship. However, should you choose to take up this internship, please do not eventually use school as an excuse. Toughen up and learn to make sacrifices. The ability to delay gratification is one of the best predictors of future success, so see this as a chance to build that muscle. 

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Rest assured that we’re fairly flexible on working hours and time commitment. Interns often take days or even weeks off when they have exams so long as they notify us in advance.

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Only take up this internship if you think you can juggle school and internship at the same time.

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We hope you’re not intimidated by the above – we’re just being honest. We would rather be upfront then to surprise you with our expectations after you join. Truth be told, most of these are fairly standard and to be expected at any professional work environment.

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If you have the mental toughness and are up for the challenge, we want you on our team!

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I acknowledge that I have read and understand Homebase’s expectations.

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Name: 

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Signature:

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