Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why Steve Jobs Couldn’t Find a Job Today

blogs.forbes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 53 posts

Re: Why Steve Jobs Couldn’t Find a Job Today

#41

Post by pnathan »

jonnathanson wrote: post #29
aridiculous wrote: post #18

It's really quite simple, and in a sense I don't think big companies are behaving irrationally: It's really hard to judge the potential of odd, creative people. There's a million people running around who talk like Steve Jobs did decades ago. Think about all the idea-people and 'mavens' you know. Granted, I think the entire hiring system isn't even close to optimized and could be greatly improved.

True. I think it's more of a two-way street than the article lets on. Think back to all of the most quirky, creative, interesting, boat-rocking people you've worked with or met. It's not a universal rule that these folks aren't very good at the "people" side of the equation...but a lot of them aren't. Furthermore, a lot of them have a marked distaste for toeing the party line. They derive more energy from challening…

Your skill as a politician -- your ability to navigate the waters, network with the right people, kiss the right ass, and sell internally -- is what gets you ahead.

This sounds like an ideal marketer skillset. Yes? No?

Re: Why Steve Jobs Couldn’t Find a Job Today

#42

Post by cwp »

_delirium wrote: post #5
rockarage wrote: post #4

A mondern day steve jobs would be a cofounder he wont spend his time looking for one of these jobs the article mentions.

I dunno, I'm not sure VCs would be too keen to fund someone with the characteristics of the 1970s Jobs. Quasi-homeless, just returned from a "spiritual enlightenment" trip to India and now dresses in traditional Indian costume, experiments with LSD...

Meh, that was the time. Today, the equivalent would be quasi-homeless, just got back from a "blogging" trip backpacking through Thailand, wears board shorts and flip flops, experiments with Provigil.

Re: Why Steve Jobs Couldn’t Find a Job Today

#43

Post by georgieporgie »

meric wrote: post #27
threejay wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a bit naive to think that it was ever particularly easy.

It's hard to imagine Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs working on a custom made device in a garage and selling hundreds of them to a local electronics store today , though.

What about making a custom device in a garage and selling them over the Internet?

Re: Why Steve Jobs Couldn’t Find a Job Today

#45

Post by ontoillogical »

meric wrote: post #27
threejay wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a bit naive to think that it was ever particularly easy.

It's hard to imagine Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs working on a custom made device in a garage and selling hundreds of them to a local electronics store today , though.

Jeri Ellsworth was doing something pretty similar in 2004 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C64_Direct-to-TV

Re: Why Steve Jobs Couldn’t Find a Job Today

#47

Post by sixtofour »

amirmc wrote: post #6

A glaring point that the article seems to forget is that Bezos, Jobs, et. al., are founder CEOs. Not one of the individuals mentioned was a hire. I think that's an important distinction, especially with respect to the author's points on creativity. "... remember that when Jobs returned to Apple in 1996, ... Let’s just say he didn’t have the benefit of the doubt. What he did have: the founder’s courage to innovate des…

Steve Jobs is both. He founded, was fired, and then was hired.

Re: Why Steve Jobs Couldn’t Find a Job Today

#48

Post by ssebro »

e1ven wrote: post #37
meric wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not as easy for startups to create vertically integrated hardware devices these days.

The time was right for the Personal Computer revolution in 1977. In 1997, it was the Internet revolution. In 2007, it was the Social revolution. There's always opportunity, you just need to find what is now worldchanging, which would be difficult, expensive, or plain impossible before.

And right now, I think we're going through the human revolution, where we use applications to make humans be better, and do better, and everything is centered around the human experience.

Re: Why Steve Jobs Couldn’t Find a Job Today

#49

Post by jmitcheson »

georgieporgie wrote: post #43
meric wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hard to imagine Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs working on a custom made device in a garage and selling hundreds of them to a local electronics store today , though.

What about making a custom device in a garage and selling them over the Internet?

They would probably get sued. By Apple ;)

Re: Why Steve Jobs Couldn’t Find a Job Today

#50

Post by Hyena »

nknight wrote: post #26
hammock wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's the point of the article- companies aren't hiring people who want to rock the boat, you have to find a way to do it yourself.

As a general rule, companies have never hired people who want to rock the boat. The point is that the article missed that point. Nothing is different about "today" vs. any time in the past.

That's the article's point: for the last decade companies have been talking up creativity and innovation and hiring like it was 1959.
Post reply on HN