By Sawdah Bhaimiya

Copyright cnbc

Founders who return to corporate life as an employee may feel some shame or stigma attached to the transition, and employers could even discriminate against them.

A 2024 study, led by Rutgers Business School, sent fake resumes to 219 people with corporate recruiting experience. The fictional applications had identical qualifications, but some were former business owners.

It found that recruiters were less likely to recommend former business owners for a role, in what’s described as an “entrepreneurship penalty” in the study. Recruiters appeared to be more hesitant to hire someone who is used to being their own boss and working autonomously.

However, public relations specialist Alain Rapallo said that founders can actually make the best employees.

Rapallo left his corporate role as a PR director to start his own agency in 2021, but returned to employee life just three years later.

Entrepreneurship is an advantage, he said, “because when you are a founder and you work by yourself, if you make it past that first year, you pretty much did every role that any company does on a smaller scale, but you pretty much did it.”

Rapallo said running a business also sharpens skills like multitasking and time management.

“Startups are scrappy, but you [as an employee] don’t necessarily do every single job. You don’t have the mentality of growing the business. You usually just have the mentality of taking care of the client or the account,” he added.

Product manager Klavins agreed that his understanding of numerous business functions was what got him his current role.

Being an employee has also been an important lesson in humility, he said, as it eliminated his ego and allowed him to start fresh.