S12 E7: Your First Time Joining a Startup With No HR or Systems…What Could Go Wrong?! (with Christine Song)

About this episode

Christine Song shares her experiences and insights on joining a startup without HR systems and the challenges that come with it.

There is a lot to say about joining a startup, and I’m saying that as somebody who has been a part of four of them. Nothing prepares you for the first time, because you truly have no idea what you’re walking into! Not even the offer letter or the job description paints the full picture, so Christine Song, founder of the 5 to 9 Society and former CPO at Knix, is here to give you her expertise. We're talking about walking into a company with no HR infrastructure, a CEO whose behavior made her want to run back to corporate, working 100 hours a week until her hair (literally) started falling out, and somehow still coming out the other side with more love for startups than ever. 00:00:00 - Intro 00:02:01 - Something Christine Believed About Work That She Had to Unlearn 00:08:26 - What Stepping Into a Startup Role Felt like Vs The Expectation of It 00:21:01 - The Important Role of HR in Startups 00:35:18 - Picking Up on Signs of Burnout 00:40:40 - Startup Culture and Its Demands 00:49:10 - Creating a Life and Identity Outside of Work 00:55:11 - Christine’s Advice For Someone New to The Startup World --- The Predictive Index behavioral assessment reveals how people work, think, and…

People in this episode

Host: Hebba Youssef

Guest: Christine Song

Topics covered

• joining a startup
• HR infrastructure
• startup culture
• burnout
• work-life balance
• startup advice

Keywords

• startup
• HR
• burnout
• work culture
• entrepreneurship
• job expectations
• work-life balance

Sponsors

Predictive Index

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: 5 to 9 Society, Knix

Products: Predictive Index

More episodes of I Hate It Here

• AI Readiness Gap: Your Two-Year HR Preparedness Countdown Starts NOW (with DeAnn Alcantar & Kelly Pacatte) · June 10, 2026 · 29 min
• S12 E8: Why You Can't Build a World-Class Company With a Zip Code Mentality with Sagar Khatri · June 8, 2026 · 52 min
• AI Readiness Gap: The AI Competency You're Hiring for Today Might Not Even Exist Tomorrow with Kristin Russum · May 27, 2026 · 35 min
• S12 E6: We Regret to Inform You That This Episode Is About Firing People (with Jennifer Laurie) · May 18, 2026 · 47 min
• Better Decisions: It Turns Out, Ignoring Women's Health at Work is Extremely Expensive For Everybody (with Kembre Roberts and Kevin Fyock) · May 15, 2026 · 41 min
• S12 E5: Certified System Girlie Meets Another Certified System Girlie with Liz Clarke · May 11, 2026 · 44 min