How to Join a Startup Right Out of School
jeanhsu.com
How to Join a Startup Right Out of School
1–10 of 13 posts
Re: How to Join a Startup Right Out of School
#2I'm hoping this thread will be a good place to get some advice. I'm about to finish undergrad. I was thinking about going to grad school but I really wanted to take a break from academia to see if I would prefer working at a startup. I've found that it is a lot harder than I expected to get hired.
I have an extremely good academic record but I can't say I blame companies for not taking that too seriously. I only have one big non-class coding project to my name and it was for research. Sadly, I focused too much on school in the past 4 years and not enough on personal projects. I obviously can't just tell people I'm a good fucking programmer. There is no reason to believe me. Is the best solution to forget job applications for now and start working on a project of my own?
Re: How to Join a Startup Right Out of School
#3so what is Pulse's plan for monetization?
There are a ton of startups popping up everyday now with a cool app but very few of them are actually solving big problems. I can tell 90% of these startups will fold within 2 years. Some may still exist but have yet to be profitable (IE: Digg, Twitter).
P.S. You should have stayed at Google.
Re: How to Join a Startup Right Out of School
#4I'm hoping this thread will be a good place to get some advice. I'm about to finish undergrad. I was thinking about going to grad school but I really wanted to take a break from academia to see if I would prefer working at a startup. I've found that it is a lot harder than I expected to get hired. I have an extremely good academic record but I can't say I blame companies for not taking that too seriously. I only have…
did you goto Stanford, Berkeley, MIT, Caltech, or CMU?
Re: How to Join a Startup Right Out of School
#5I'm hoping this thread will be a good place to get some advice. I'm about to finish undergrad. I was thinking about going to grad school but I really wanted to take a break from academia to see if I would prefer working at a startup. I've found that it is a lot harder than I expected to get hired. I have an extremely good academic record but I can't say I blame companies for not taking that too seriously. I only have…
My best advice (not that it's valuable): Take a weekend to yourself and learn something new with a personal project. Build a Facebook game, make use of the Twitter API, learn some basics of functional programming. Anything you can do to show that you are motivated and interested will help you significantly.
Re: How to Join a Startup Right Out of School
#6I'm hoping this thread will be a good place to get some advice. I'm about to finish undergrad. I was thinking about going to grad school but I really wanted to take a break from academia to see if I would prefer working at a startup. I've found that it is a lot harder than I expected to get hired. I have an extremely good academic record but I can't say I blame companies for not taking that too seriously. I only have…
I know non-technical founders get a lot of flak on HN, but working with one, if you're looking to build a track record, can be a great learning experience.
If you limit your involvement to building prototypes (Android, iPhone, RoR) , you can get a good feel for the nature of working with requirements and deadlines, as well as picking up incidental knowledge specific to a platform that will make you a standout candidate.
Re: How to Join a Startup Right Out of School
#7I'm hoping this thread will be a good place to get some advice. I'm about to finish undergrad. I was thinking about going to grad school but I really wanted to take a break from academia to see if I would prefer working at a startup. I've found that it is a lot harder than I expected to get hired. I have an extremely good academic record but I can't say I blame companies for not taking that too seriously. I only have…
Who cares...everyone has an API these days. Pick two of FB, Twitter, Twilio, 4sq and combine them into some dumb (or useful!) app.
Try a facebook puzzle.
Getting onto the BlackBerry PlayBook dev program is free right now. Register asap and make SOME app for it...who knows, you might even make some money. Though you should keep your initial 3-5 apps free
Re: How to Join a Startup Right Out of School
#8I applied to a few startups for positions that asked for ~5 years experience right out of school.
My email usually consisted of asking if they would consider someone of lesser experience (perhaps as a half-year trial) with pay of course commensurate with experience. Some companies seemed very receptive to the concept.
Also: EVERYONE I interviewed for was far more impressed with personal projects than academic credentials
I got very far with one Boston startup, where they debated internally whether taking me or holding out for someone older would be a better idea, but I eventually took a different offer instead (from a small-company, but not a startup)
Re: How to Join a Startup Right Out of School
#9Maybe I'm really lucky, but I'm still in school and I've worked for several startups. Being in a start-up city (Austin) definitely helps. And I would go to tech events and ask if anyone is looking for an intern. That's probably the best (i.e. easiest) way. And know the technologies they use (hardly any students know rails), because startups don't have time to train you.
Re: How to Join a Startup Right Out of School
#10Having great personal projects is key. We're really fortunate to be in an industry where you can so easily showcase your skills & talents.
Through my interviews with startups (I'm a college Junior), they were much much more interested in my side-projects than anything school-related. I highlight Projects at the very top of resume, then past Internships, then school-related activities.