Ask HN Getting Started in the SF Bay Area

#1

Post by ruthdjohnson » Thu, Jan 06, 2011, 4:08 AM UTC

I just moved to the SF Bay Area yesterday with the goal of grabbing a job in the tech community. I have a degree in English (research emphasis) and a minor in business, which combined leads me to looking specifically for a marketing job with a cool start-up company.

That being said, I am pretty open to any kind of job opportunity that is challenging and requires smarts, resourcefulness, and a willingness to learn. I definitely would like to grab a position that could lead me to a real field education in the tech field (very sad to have never taken any courses in programming or design). The main problem is I really have no idea what I am looking for or how to get started.

So far in preparation I have started a blog under my own domain, linked it to my twitter account, and completely restarted my boring, ordinary looking resume. I could really use some HN tech geniuses to help me figure out how to get started.

Thanks in advance for you thoughts.

Re: Ask HN Getting Started in the SF Bay Area

#2

Post by Rubyred » Thu, Jan 06, 2011, 4:25 AM UTC

My advice: don't say what you can do, show what you can do. Start a project you can get excited about and demonstrates your ability to market a product or service. Document the entire process on your blog, and create awareness to your blog with Twitter.

Good luck!

Re: Ask HN Getting Started in the SF Bay Area

#3

Post by nym » Thu, Jan 06, 2011, 4:50 AM UTC

We had a thing on here a while ago called "Offer HN" where all sort of people offered (for free) their services to others. You could do the same thing for startups here for copywriting / marketing.

Re: Ask HN Getting Started in the SF Bay Area

#4

Post by pgroves » Thu, Jan 06, 2011, 4:53 AM UTC

I think you should consider a sales job, even if that's not what you want to do long term. I was given the job of "technical guy on the sales team" at a startup and it was a good experience for a year or so even though I didn't want to make a career out of it.

You'd be surprised how many "official marketing materials" get written by the sales team the night before big meetings, especially in the early days when there's no budget for real marketing.