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How to Join a Startup Right Out of School
11–13 of 13 posts
Re: How to Join a Startup Right Out of School
#12Having 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.
This goes for non-students too. We are very interested in people that have pet projects.
Re: How to Join a Startup Right Out of School
#13I'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 have an extremely good academic record but I can't say I blame companies for not taking that too seriously."
Nonsense. Despite the conventional wisdom on HN, most companies highly value students with good grades. We just also want people who can code. If you can do both, you'll be fine. But...it takes a while to land the first gig. That's totally normal, and has very little to do with the status of your github account. Do not believe people who tell you otherwise, because they have serious problems with perspective.
The fact is, if you've just started hunting, you're looking for work late in the recruiting cycle. Most larger companies recruit at the beginning of the school year (autumn), with a smaller effort sometime after the holidays. So if you're starting now, you're going against the tide, and it will be tougher to get attention.
If you can code, and your grades are as good as you say they are, send me your resume (my HN user at yelp.com), and I'll put your application in at Yelp. We're always hiring smart people.