Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think in particular, I would/could have benefited more from the increased number of opportunities for free time and flexibility: * No longer have seasonal breaks outside of the odd vacation time. * Can't cram work into only a couple days a week as I am expected to show up every day. * In college, you can skip classes that you already know the material for and only show up for tests (i.e. do the minimum possible to…
Why not try freelancing? Take on only enough work to support your living costs, which should be far less than a full time job if you are a developer (I'm betting you could get by on 5-10 hours per week if you are careful with your money), and leave the rest of your time free to do whatever you want. You are not going to get rich doing it that way, but wealth doesn't seem to be a concern of yours anyway.
Thoughts on dropping out to do a startup
51–60 of 60 posts
Re: Thoughts on dropping out to do a startup
#52If you are not American, do not drop out. You will have issues obtaining a US work visa without a uni degree, i.e. you cannot go to Silicon Valley, i.e. you will be at a disadvantage.
On the flip-side, if your reason for going to SV is to look for riches, the composition of the top 1%, according to Gallup, is comprised of: 23% college graduates 27% college dropouts, or less 49% post-graduates Unless you are willing to do post-graduate studies (which, I imagine, is primarily limited to professional degrees like MD and JD), you are statistically worse off by having a college degree.
Re: Thoughts on dropping out to do a startup
#53How many startups can actually reach stable revenue? I don't mean you need to take down Facebook or Google. But there are way too many startups. Sometimes I start to think: how many customers do they get? Ten? Twenty? Thirty? How long? A year? But on the other hand, startup is great for fresh out graduates. They learn better and quicker in theory - they are forced to adapt to the change of specs and environment. It's…
I think the majority of startups teach great lessons in how not to run a business. Some of the best lessons Ive learned is watching others as well as myself inadvertently blow stuff up and realizing that should have been done a lot differently. Every once in a while the stars align but what the tech media doesn't say is that the majority of work that goes on in startups is doing stuff that is experimental but typical…
Re: Thoughts on dropping out to do a startup
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, College degree matters. In fact in many cases your resume may not even pass through the filters if you don't have college degree on it. People seriously need to think before dropping out. What do you plan to do, if your start up folds up? Which is a very likely scenario given how many start ups fold up. You can do the start up thing anytime. But going to college has always been a young mans game.
In fact in many cases your resume may not even pass through the filters if you don't have college degree on it. If you want to be a doctor or lawyer, sure. If you want to work in technology, I've never met anyone who cares. In hindsight, I believe you can optimize your path for your career which often would not include college, but admittedly it is difficult to see that path as a youth, which I suppose could make col…
It's a bummer that I'll probably never work for the Facebooks or Googles of the world, but there are always jobs going in tech and once you have experience, your education is pretty much irrelevant.
Your education shows your first employer that you are dedicated and know your stuff, when you go to your second job, it is your performance in job one which will instead be validated.
Re: Thoughts on dropping out to do a startup
#55I'll second the "keep studying" part. After high school and summers during college, I worked at a wonderful startup. Software was a big part of what they were doing, but hardware was the real innovation and everybody there except me was a hardware guy. By my second year I was giving architecture presentations to the client, because who else was going to do it? At one point I contemplated just dropping out and going t…
'rayiner, if you're who I think you are (Northwestern Law?), your grades must not have been that bad; you seem to be doing just fine career-wise.
Re: Thoughts on dropping out to do a startup
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
No!
Care to elaborate? :) Thanks everyone for the replies. My logic is: I learned everything I know about programming on my own (specifically, almost exclusively from the internet), and I am dying to get to SV, get some industry experience, and hopefully soon start my own company (me and my brother hope to eventually apply to YC together, he's got big ideas too). I spend my spare time working on those "undergraduate hack…
This topic hits home so this may end up a long post -- you don't have to read it by any means :) Instead go read Steve Jobs' Stanford commencement speech, it's much more eloquent and compelling than anything I have to say, and he tells a great story about how hard he tried to stay in college though he could not afford the tuition.
I thought I'd share my experience in hopes it would help give some perspective. First, I would never advise anyone to entirely drop out of school, but I totally get how you're feeling because I took two years away from college to explore and pursue a business idea. I grew up in Silicon Valley (or more accurately, I grew up with Silicon Valley) in an environment where your peers expected you to stay on a straight, almost preordained path to an acclaimed university and then a big tech- or science-related company. And should you stray from that path, it had better be to start a tech company with immediately obviously benefits that everyone understood and praised, or else you'd better prepare to be scorned. Even in SV, the word "startup" doesn't always connote glamor, most often people's views of success and fearless entrepreneurship are in hindsight.
I was tired of the social pressure and looking for different problems to tackle so I left school temporarily and went as far away from SV as possible -- I went all the way to a mountain village in China to oversee a teeny-tiny clothing factory -- not the type of "startup" my SV peers would have been proud of. But I always knew I'd come home to SV and I was determined to finish my degree. I took distance learning classes online so I could earn credits for transferring into a good business program. "Distance learning" from a mountainous village in China in meant hooking up a very slow, very unstable dial-up connection (it was a miracle they even had a modem and Internet service at all) at work and doing some random micro-Econ coursework while dozens of sewing machines whirled around me, and praying that the power wouldn't go out suddenly. Sometimes it meant taking final exams at 4am because of the time difference.
That experience was both vastly frustrating and great fun, but it would not have been complete if I hadn't gone back to college. I enjoyed being able to hack out my own curriculum, but those online classes would not have mattered if I didn't turn them into a real degree. I got the credits I needed and successfully transferred into the undergrad business program of my choice. After being away for two years, I had become used to being without many resources, and now there were tons of university programs and people who wanted to know all about what I've been doing and help me take those ideas further. The graduate school had entrepreneurship competition and I even got to pitch my ideas on reforming manufacturing processes in the fashion/clothing industry to some VCs. One thing's for sure-- I would've had a hard time coming by those opportunities to drive my ideas even further had I not gone back to finish my degree. I still had to take quite a few pointless classes but those didn't matter compared to everything else the university offered. Sometimes it's hard to tell what's useful and what isn't till further down the road.
In the case your college sucks, now's a good time to check out some SV schools since you're already coming out here for your FB internship. You don't have to quit school to explore your ideas.
Hope this bit of insight helps and good luck with everything!
Re: Thoughts on dropping out to do a startup
#57Another thing to keep in mind is that the majority of successful tech startup founders probably did finish college and have some life experience... E.g. Elon Musk is a prime example - he got degrees in both Economics and Physics before going on to found Zip2, X.com (precursor to PayPal), SpaceX and Tesla motors.
Re: Thoughts on dropping out to do a startup
#58Hopefully this is related: can anyone give some advice or input on dropping out to work in silicon valley in general? I'm not close to done (first semester freshman), but I have an internship at a certain large SV company this summer. If you were in my position, and that company offered a job, would you take it?
My uncle told me: you're going to be working for the rest of your life -- five days a week, with minor breaks for vacations. Enjoy school while it lasts, make the most of it; there's no rush to get into work because there's no getting out. (Yes, some people end up rich or with atypical work schedules that make the above categorization not true, and others roll the startup dice and have a great time at that too, but t…
I dropped out of college a few months ago & I'm focusing on self educating myself on subjects that I'm particularly interested in, investment, accounting, web design, I'm working on a few great ideas & I have no intentions of working five days a week with minor breaks for vacations in the future because I am currently working 7 days a week with no vacations in order to not only live a life that most people only dream of, but also to make a real impact in the world within a few years (I'm 19).
I guess it's all opinion, but assuming that the process of enjoying life at school then going into work for the rest of your life to suffer is the standard among 'the vast majority of people' is just non-existent to me. I consider myself to be a normal person who is just damn willing to work hard for what he believes in, and fortunately at this time in my life, I have a concrete vision of what I believe in.
If you love what you do, then your work days are just as fun and fulfilling as your vacation days, and believe me, I intend to do what I love.
(Btw I hope I don't come across as arrogant or rude, I respect your comment and I'm just offering my opinion.)
Re: Thoughts on dropping out to do a startup
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
My uncle told me: you're going to be working for the rest of your life -- five days a week, with minor breaks for vacations. Enjoy school while it lasts, make the most of it; there's no rush to get into work because there's no getting out. (Yes, some people end up rich or with atypical work schedules that make the above categorization not true, and others roll the startup dice and have a great time at that too, but t…
You see, the thing with this kind of advice that your uncle kindly gave to you is that this only settles into the mind of people who have the mentality that they can only really enjoy life at school/college before being locked in a confined work cell. I dropped out of college a few months ago & I'm focusing on self educating myself on subjects that I'm particularly interested in, investment, accounting, web design, I…
If there's any interesting life lesson I've learned in my few years it's this: just because you're different from the people immediately around you (due to intelligence, drive, etc.) it doesn't mean your broad needs in life (e.g. human companionship, time to unwind) are going to be significantly different than the billions of humans that came before you. That's not dooming you to mediocrity, that's just stats -- that's the intelligent read of the data we have. But despite a million cliche stories of the powerful magnate whose only life regret is that they had spent more time with their children (even Steve Jobs, perhaps: http://technology.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=28... ), it may just be a lesson you can only learn from experience.
Re: Thoughts on dropping out to do a startup
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
Care to elaborate? :) Thanks everyone for the replies. My logic is: I learned everything I know about programming on my own (specifically, almost exclusively from the internet), and I am dying to get to SV, get some industry experience, and hopefully soon start my own company (me and my brother hope to eventually apply to YC together, he's got big ideas too). I spend my spare time working on those "undergraduate hack…
At a good college you learn as much from the other students as from your classes, and not only about CS. It's also easier to work on side projects in college. You should not leave college as early as this unless (a) you start something so successful that it pulls you out, or (b) you are one of the very rare people who are temperamentally unsuited to it. Unless your college is awful, your longing for SV is a case of t…