Here’s my general advice to you based on what I know.
I’d encourage you to focus on applying to jobs at earlier stage startups (think B-stage or earlier). They tend to have more tolerance for non-traditional backgrounds and will like that you have startup experience. Plus based on what I know about you it will be a better culture fit. As startups hit C-stage and later they start to become “big companies” with middle management and highly specialized roles and thus prize legibility. Their general way of dealing with someone with a non-traditional background is to either not hire them or underlevel them because they don’t trust they can do the job (which, maybe they can’t because although they have the basic skills needed they might not have the skills of operating in a large org which are necessary to get things done at such places once you get to more senior levels).
If you can get recruiters to email you those will be your best leeds. Otherwise, just reach out. I’ve personally found great jobs using AngelList.
As for the interviews, seems like you should be fine on coding and system design. Behavior interviews are trying to figure out if you’re an asshole and if you can work as part of a team. If you can do those things you’ll probably be fine. You might screw up the first few times, though, so be prepared to have to grind some experience on interviews because you figure out how to answer. There is some art to answering how interviewers expect, but I don’t know an easy way to explain that. There are courses you can take, though, that will teach you this stuff. Might be worth it if you can’t afford to grind interview experience the natural way.
Here’s my general advice to you based on what I know.
I’d encourage you to focus on applying to jobs at earlier stage startups (think B-stage or earlier). They tend to have more tolerance for non-traditional backgrounds and will like that you have startup experience. Plus based on what I know about you it will be a better culture fit. As startups hit C-stage and later they start to become “big companies” with middle management and highly specialized roles and thus prize legibility. Their general way of dealing with someone with a non-traditional background is to either not hire them or underlevel them because they don’t trust they can do the job (which, maybe they can’t because although they have the basic skills needed they might not have the skills of operating in a large org which are necessary to get things done at such places once you get to more senior levels).
If you can get recruiters to email you those will be your best leeds. Otherwise, just reach out. I’ve personally found great jobs using AngelList.
As for the interviews, seems like you should be fine on coding and system design. Behavior interviews are trying to figure out if you’re an asshole and if you can work as part of a team. If you can do those things you’ll probably be fine. You might screw up the first few times, though, so be prepared to have to grind some experience on interviews because you figure out how to answer. There is some art to answering how interviewers expect, but I don’t know an easy way to explain that. There are courses you can take, though, that will teach you this stuff. Might be worth it if you can’t afford to grind interview experience the natural way.