Hey,guys,I'm moving to London in a couple of weeks and would like to ask you some questions about UCL/Imperial and the startup scene in general.Is there some relevant forum(not studentroom.co.uk)?
If not,due to lack of PM system on YC,if any of you replies to my email anton_92@live.com,would appreciate it.Thank you
Ask HN: Why don't more UK graduates want to join start-ups?
51–60 of 86 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why don't more UK graduates want to join start-ups?
#52When I left university I interviewed at a small company and a startup but in both cases they were just interviews for jobs I got through a recruitment consultant. That was all I knew of how to get a job. I think the problem is that recent graduates are unaware they could be doing anything other than looking at cwjobs and phoning a recruitment agency up. Possibly timing is an issue, right before or after final exams m…
Paid summer internships is a smart point. Many of the companies exhibiting at the event are keen to having summer tech interns, and perhaps if we packaged that up better we'd get more engagement from university tutors. Maybe we should create a listing of all the summer internships available as well. Thanks for a helpful idea.
I just looked and workinstartups.com has an interns section.
http://workinstartups.com/jobs/interns/
possibly you could work with them on this? They seem to be UK based/focused.
Re: Ask HN: Why don't more UK graduates want to join start-ups?
#53I'm a recent graduate and I attended the previous milkroundabout. Let me start by saying that I've always hated recruitment fairs — you're treated like cattle and rarely get to speak to companies (read: HR departments) properly. I found it to be a similar situation with the milkroundabout event only instead of HR departments it was founders and developers. I don't agree with "selling the brand" of milkroundabout as i…
I'd be curious to hear how you found the last event? Our goal was that all the start-up booths would be staffed by developers at the start-ups, so you'd be able to find out what the culture and experience of their start-up was like, directly. Did that happen? Sounds like it was much like a typical recruitment fair for you, which is a failure on our part.
> Our goal was that all the start-up booths would be staffed by developers at the start-ups, so you'd be able to find out what the culture and experience of their start-up was like, directly.
Yes, but not as much as I'd like to. I found it far too easy to get stuck in a slow-moving crowd or just wait in a queue to talk.
In the end I just stayed by the bar near the bar staff and talked to developers as they went to grab a beer. It seemed to work better and the devs were far more relaxed talking with a beer in hand. Same goes for outside when they went to grab a cigarette.
Re: Ask HN: Why don't more UK graduates want to join start-ups?
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
Paid summer internships is a smart point. Many of the companies exhibiting at the event are keen to having summer tech interns, and perhaps if we packaged that up better we'd get more engagement from university tutors. Maybe we should create a listing of all the summer internships available as well. Thanks for a helpful idea.
I think this would create a lot of interest in the start-up area. As part of my course there was a compulsory 6-month placement in industry. Most of the students were blissfully unaware of the start-up opportunities available, especially when the big players were dangling large money incentives and holding big promotion events. Also, if you took a typical internship with a bank, etc, the chances are that you got offe…
Great feedback, thanks. I think some kind of on campus event is the next step and I love the idea of making it about product demos not standard booths.
Re: Ask HN: Why don't more UK graduates want to join start-ups?
#55I've registered for the event this year but I graduated in '05 in CS/IS so I guess I match the pattern you have been seeing.
When I graduated I barely knew that startups existed and I certainly didn't know they needed grads.
I went to a Uni that had an associated business park and those companies advertised on the student job board.
I did a graduate scheme with one of those companies but I wish I'd had more exposure to startups and associated events.
Is there a central list of these 500+ roles? Not so people can apply but so students know before hand that they are suited to the positions.
Maybe it's the nature of CS students, it's a pretty daunting time - especially meeting recruiting companies face to face. It's hard to know what to say for yourself if all you've got is a degree in hand.
For the average grads it feels like the competition would be just way to high.
With a few years of work experience it's much easier to go and chat to recruiters as you've got confidence in the projects you've worked on.
I don't know if any of the roles at the event will be suited to me this Sunday but I'm going anyway because I'd love to talk to some of the companies that are there.
I don't think I would have done that as a grad.
Re: Ask HN: Why don't more UK graduates want to join start-ups?
#56Are you working with uni staff to get the word out? Staff at programmes like http://www.ucl.ac.uk/msi/study/technology-entrepreneurship would probably be keen to promote it.
We are, and have contacted a large number of list moderators for careers/CS/entrepreneurship etc. I'll double check if we have reached out to that one. Thanks
Re: Ask HN: Why don't more UK graduates want to join start-ups?
#57I've registered for the event this year but I graduated in '05 in CS/IS so I guess I match the pattern you have been seeing. When I graduated I barely knew that startups existed and I certainly didn't know they needed grads. I went to a Uni that had an associated business park and those companies advertised on the student job board. I did a graduate scheme with one of those companies but I wish I'd had more exposure…
look forward to hopefully meeting you on sunday and would love any feedback you have on how it goes for you.
I think the idea of a central list is a good one, and others have suggested that too.
Re: Ask HN: Why don't more UK graduates want to join start-ups?
#58Imperial College academic here. I haven't seen any fliers or posters around college today so this might have something to do with your lack of uptake. This is in contrast to the event you had earlier in the year which was prominently advertised around the place.
Also I noticed there is a careers fair happening today, predominantly big engineering firms/consultancies/banking, and I didn't see if you had any representation there (apologies if you do and I missed it).
Re: Ask HN: Why don't more UK graduates want to join start-ups?
#59I'm a founder of Lyst, one of the companies who will be involved in the event. I have two theories about why the traction for so-to-be graduates hasn't been amazing. 1) Location. While London is definitely business and cultural center of Britain, I believe it's a bit of a slog for students to travel down to the recruitments fair, especially since most of the best universities are located outside of the city. SO going…
Location is a good point. Never underestimate the laziness of students when it comes to transit. They're used to living in a village.
Or expense, including accommodation.
Re: Ask HN: Why don't more UK graduates want to join start-ups?
#60Why focus on just CS and engineering degrees? I was a Physics student, knew more about code than some CS undergrads and wasn't alone in that regard. You'll also find a lot of generally smart people who you can teach to code here.
I'll second the point many have made about money. It's hard to resist one of the big banks offering you £40k+ straight out of university.