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How to hack your way into a hot startup with no experience

blog.vidyard.com

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Re: How to hack your way into a hot startup with no experience

#21

Post by kami8845 »

philsnow wrote: post #19
kami8845 wrote: post #5

Wow, some really big mistakes... Explains why it took 5 months to get the final interview. >but I will put in 12 hours a day, 7 days a week until I get there. >Vidyard being one of them, even if I work for free. >I'm even willing to work for free for a period of time. Never, ever, ever do this stuff - Free If you say you're willing to work for free, that tells me one thing: You think your work is of no value to me. A…

> I also researched _every_ person who I'd be talking to. Has a lot of PostgreSQL related posts on their blog? "Oh yeah I hate MySQL". Re-tweeted a tweet about a MongoDB bug report? "I prefer traditional databases for serious apps". Has a blog post about Go? "I think the speed advantage that Go can offer is really interesting" And so on and so forth. People like people who are like them, with pretty much everyone exp…

I have no problems disagreeing with someone, but the phone chat has exactly one and only one purpose: Get the on-site. Then once I have the full spectrum of communication available to me (mostly worried about body language and facial expressions), I will gauge how open-minded they are and adjust. I've told people before that I think their $FAVORITELANG is bullshit, but I won't risk a job interview just to score an A+ on the "utmost honesty" scale. I'm happy with a preliminary B- while I'm temporarily unable get a solid grasp of what they're like.

Re: How to hack your way into a hot startup with no experience

#22

Post by kami8845 »

troels wrote: post #15
kami8845 wrote: post #5

Wow, some really big mistakes... Explains why it took 5 months to get the final interview. >but I will put in 12 hours a day, 7 days a week until I get there. >Vidyard being one of them, even if I work for free. >I'm even willing to work for free for a period of time. Never, ever, ever do this stuff - Free If you say you're willing to work for free, that tells me one thing: You think your work is of no value to me. A…

I also researched _every_ person who I'd be talking to. Has a lot of PostgreSQL related posts on their blog? "Oh yeah I hate MySQL". Re-tweeted a tweet about a MongoDB bug report? "I prefer traditional databases for serious apps". Has a blog post about Go? "I think the speed advantage that Go can offer is really interesting" And so on and so forth. People like people who are like them, with pretty much everyone expos…

I'm already pretty handicapped by being an introvert and not having English as my first language, so I'll try and make up for the difficulty of holding a conversation by other means. I'd love to not have to rely on these things, but right now I'm not confident enough in my conversation skills to forego these "conversation hacks". At least during the initial conversation.

Re: How to hack your way into a hot startup with no experience

#23

Post by kami8845 »

jacalata wrote: post #16
kami8845 wrote: post #5

Wow, some really big mistakes... Explains why it took 5 months to get the final interview. >but I will put in 12 hours a day, 7 days a week until I get there. >Vidyard being one of them, even if I work for free. >I'm even willing to work for free for a period of time. Never, ever, ever do this stuff - Free If you say you're willing to work for free, that tells me one thing: You think your work is of no value to me. A…

Wow, some really big mistakes... I've similarly been on the job hunt for my first job recently You sound a little over confident of 'the right way to look for a job' for someone who's only just getting your first job now.

Thank you. I've been researching job search related stuff for the past ~4 months (still stuck in a limbo during that time) and so I would say I know more about the job search than most people :) Especially those that have been able to just get a job out of university (I don't have a degree) or who are already so wanted that they don't really have to worry about these things.

What I pointed out are mistakes whether you know job search best practices or not (as most people will agree).

Finally I would like to submit that your post is a form of DH1 (http://www.paulgraham.com/disagree.html)

Re: How to hack your way into a hot startup with no experience

#24

Post by moocow01 »

ajross wrote: post #7

Is this the end of the current startup era? How did we get from "Make stuff people want" to the current obsession with funding, SEO and "Growth Hackers" (!). This sounds like the same sort of nonsense I was reading in January 2000. Just like the 90's tech boom, the community has become inward-looking, stale, and it's feeding on itself (c.f. this article, which isn't about how to start a company but to be hired by a "…

I'd agree that while I really dont have a full picture of the economics of the current startup atmosphere (does anyone?), the culture right now is a pretty strong indicator to me that things are going to stagnate or trend down. IMHO there is a pretty toxic layer of culture that has built up from all the hype that for the most part is adding negative value. I dont really give a crap if people think it fits their definition of a "bubble" or not - if the focus is not on providing tangible value to others, the market will eventually figure it out and value it appropriately. I think there is a large and growing segment of startups that view their business as existing to just bring value to themselves (although will obviously never be admitted) - business plans that stop at getting funding, comfy office suites, parties, etc. Part of this is getting driven by a segment of newly inspired newcomers that view startups as essentially just a cool atmosphere where they could get rich rather than what startups really should be to be successful ... a slog through utter absolute shit to try to do something that really matters to the people involved.

Re: How to hack your way into a hot startup with no experience

#25

Post by pnathan »

kami8845 wrote: post #20
pnathan wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you're coming off as someone who will say anything to get the job. Not my preferred candidate.... On the other hand, these threads provide me with signals to watch out for. :-)

No. I will never lie or say something that I do not believe myself. The research above just tells me WHAT to say, if someone has a viewpoint on a certain topic that is 100% opposite from mine, I will simply not bring it up and look for other commonalities. >Not my preferred candidate.... Well the good thing is if I do my job right, you'll never know :)

If I do my job right in an interview, I corner you into something we disagree on, and you tell me why you think I'm wrong. We get to learn how we handle conflict, and if we can have a reasonable disagreement. ;)

Re: How to hack your way into a hot startup with no experience

#26

Post by redwood »

Amazing how much free consulting work companies are getting through job interviews these days... It almost makes you think a lot of companies now have an incentive to pretend to be hiring just to get this input.

By the way, if anyone's interested, I posted a cpl days ago to no avail the following breakdown of job openings results in select cities by select keywords via Indeed.com's API (I'm new to python and having some fun): http://i.imgur.com/hGlSb.png

Re: How to hack your way into a hot startup with no experience

#27

Post by redwood »

Irregardless wrote: post #3

It's an interesting story and really shows an unusual level of determination, but I'm stuck on this part: > So, just to recap, that’s about 5 months and 9 interviews/meetings and countless hours spent working on projects/reports/presentations. > by proving himself capable for the role, he hacked the process. I don't see a hack so much as I see a broken process that made a single task monumentally difficult and time c…

I think it would probably be better to just make "temp to hire" the norm and start lot's of people, keep those who seem to excel.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about cut-throat competition and giant classes feeding into one position.

I'm just thinking you can't tell how someone's going to do until they're in, and you should be able to get them in quicker and easier to find out. Finally, a lot of good people can learn quickly.

I suppose what I suggest is real hands-on mentorship which is not the norm in American management today...

Re: How to hack your way into a hot startup with no experience

#28

Post by kami8845 »

pnathan wrote: post #25
kami8845 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. I will never lie or say something that I do not believe myself. The research above just tells me WHAT to say, if someone has a viewpoint on a certain topic that is 100% opposite from mine, I will simply not bring it up and look for other commonalities. >Not my preferred candidate.... Well the good thing is if I do my job right, you'll never know :)

If I do my job right in an interview, I corner you into something we disagree on, and you tell me why you think I'm wrong. We get to learn how we handle conflict, and if we can have a reasonable disagreement. ;)

OK. Now I'm curious. What would be the sort of things you would try to corner me into?

Re: How to hack your way into a hot startup with no experience

#29

Post by pnathan »

kami8845 wrote: post #28
pnathan wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I do my job right in an interview, I corner you into something we disagree on, and you tell me why you think I'm wrong. We get to learn how we handle conflict, and if we can have a reasonable disagreement. ;)

OK. Now I'm curious. What would be the sort of things you would try to corner me into?

I am fond of design questions, both on the receiving and asking end. I drill down until you take a branch that I would distinctly choose not to. Then I press you for reasons. E.g., why would you write your web app in C++?

edit: Note that someone who is genuinely very close to me in opinions won't challenge me in ways that really produce a useful diversity of opinion. They would, however, likely agree with my sense of strategy and tactics; this might lead to a collective blindspot where a deeper problem is overlooked. Being able to professionally disagree and then work together to form a final result is very important.

Re: How to hack your way into a hot startup with no experience

#30

Post by achompas »

brianbreslin wrote: post #12

You know its funny, most of the talented engineers here in Miami are working at big corps and could care less about the startup echo-chamber and jobs at these startups. Could be that our startups here don't get enough press to seem cool?

Well, look at the article. It's written by a young guy who essentially consulted for this company for free for 5 months. I'd argue South Florida has it right: startups are absurdly glamorized right now, and in a region where everyone (everyone!) hustles to get by, the engineers know fronting when they see it.

Why do engineers go to startups? Cool technology, interesting problems, more autonomy, and the slim chance of a big payoff. Startups in South Florida apparently have none of these. I've told Mike Greenberg (and you too, I think?) as much about the tech meetup culture down there: you won't have strong technology culture without strong technology. RefreshMiami and a Rails meetup won't cut it.

Besides, why quit your corporate engineering job for a startup when you're making $80k+ in a city where money is everything?

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