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Take me to Silicon Valley: 19 year old designer seeking opportunity

takemetosiliconvalley.com

21–30 of 68 posts

Re: Take me to Silicon Valley: 19 year old designer seeking opportunity

#21
Is the entire thing just a Photoshop Save for Web document with some jQuery attached?

Also the "LET MY DREAM COME TRUE" image's hover state not being preloaded made me sad.

Okay to actually be constructive:

It's a good time to be trying this because it's the beginning of a new year so H-1B visas are available.

As another self taught young developer who's extremely eager to leave his full-time job and go to school next semester, I can't say I agree with his goals. But if that's what you want to do, it's a good attempt at getting out there.

Most companies I would know that would be willing to set up a visa for a person who wants to drop out of college in Europe would be start-ups, however I don't know if a pure Graphic Designer is in demand with start-ups. I would expect them to rather have someone who's very good at graphic design and can code the basics of the designs themselves rather than have someone who's fantastic at graphic design but is just a one-trick pony.

When I worked in a start-up one of the biggest deciding factors we had when interviewing designers (right after their taste) was how much of the design they could implement themselves. It made little sense to pay someone to design a Photoshop document and send to a developer to turn into HTML or a layout file where we could pay someone else to design it AND make the HTML file themselves. Most of the time that person didn't ask for 200% of the pay of someone just doing Photoshop work either.

Re: Take me to Silicon Valley: 19 year old designer seeking opportunity

#23

For what it's worth, and there's a lot of feedback here relating to technical issues/lifestyle choices etc, but considering you're applying to be a designer I thought the site looked and felt awesome . Totally engaging, easy to read and follow, and I read right to the end. Great pitch.

Absolutely agree. The only faux pa i've seen is that the call to action button on the bottom only starts loading when hovering over it, becoming invisible for a short moment.

Re: Take me to Silicon Valley: 19 year old designer seeking opportunity

#24
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but because he'll probably end up in the US on an H-1B visa. Actually, getting an H1B visa without a college education is near-to-impossible. I have a college education that isn't in computing, and I've had to provide evidence of six years of work experience as an alternative. I doubt our 19 year old friend will be able to do that. Plus he can't "work for food for two months"- in fact, just that being on his site wou…

H1Bs, without a significant body of work to prove yourself with, are VERY hard to come by. Believe me.

Oh, I know. I'm in the process right now, and have been for over six months...

Re: Take me to Silicon Valley: 19 year old designer seeking opportunity

#25
post #21

Is the entire thing just a Photoshop Save for Web document with some jQuery attached? Also the "LET MY DREAM COME TRUE" image's hover state not being preloaded made me sad. Okay to actually be constructive: It's a good time to be trying this because it's the beginning of a new year so H-1B visas are available. As another self taught young developer who's extremely eager to leave his full-time job and go to school nex…

Filip went to high school in Washington state, so I think he might actually be a US citizen. Would be good to mention somewhere on the page though.

Re: Take me to Silicon Valley: 19 year old designer seeking opportunity

#26
post #22

He lost me at "hello guys" and a picture of cleavage. Great design otherwise though.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. I was wondering if the person was making a play on words with 'silicon,' but considering his grasp of English, that might be giving too much credit.

Re: Take me to Silicon Valley: 19 year old designer seeking opportunity

#27
post #21

Is the entire thing just a Photoshop Save for Web document with some jQuery attached? Also the "LET MY DREAM COME TRUE" image's hover state not being preloaded made me sad. Okay to actually be constructive: It's a good time to be trying this because it's the beginning of a new year so H-1B visas are available. As another self taught young developer who's extremely eager to leave his full-time job and go to school nex…

Filip went to high school in Washington state, so I think he might actually be a US citizen. Would be good to mention somewhere on the page though.

He says for half a year. It was most likely a study-abroad program else he should've definitely stated that. I'm an eleven-year permanent resident currently waiting on my citizenship paperwork so I'd be sad if he was already a US citizen and I wasn't ;)

Re: Take me to Silicon Valley: 19 year old designer seeking opportunity

#29
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but because he'll probably end up in the US on an H-1B visa. Actually, getting an H1B visa without a college education is near-to-impossible. I have a college education that isn't in computing, and I've had to provide evidence of six years of work experience as an alternative. I doubt our 19 year old friend will be able to do that. Plus he can't "work for food for two months"- in fact, just that being on his site wou…

The VISA situation for internship would be F1, specifically F1-CPT. It would be much easier if Filip is studying in the US, but it is still easier compared to getting H1B. Getting a silicon valley company to give him an offer would be a per-requisite.

It's J-1 more likely. F1-CPT from a glance seems to be for things like placement years as part of a Uni course rather than something personal.

Re: Take me to Silicon Valley: 19 year old designer seeking opportunity

#30
post #3

Very cool, but please don't drop out of university. For the vast majority of students, this is a decision that will come back and bite you in the ass when whatever you quit Uni for comes to an end.

> this is a decision that will come back and bite you in the ass when whatever you quit Uni for comes to an end.

I know you're trying to help, but these kinds of absolute statements can really mess with people. I got pretty much the same speech when I decided to leave school more than a decade ago.

Logically, I still cannot figure out what they were talking about. I have never met anyone who cared about what school you went, how well you did there, or if you went at all. Irrationally, however, I wonder how many days I have left until it hits and all the regret sets in.

Anyway, don't let me stop you. I just wanted to point out that getting so involved in other people's lives, people you don't even know especially, can be quite damaging.

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