Need advice: Entrepreneur to full-time job • Hacker News Board

Re: Need advice: Entrepreneur to full-time job

#21

Post by ctseng01 » Fri, Aug 29, 2014, 9:13 AM UTC

After being on your own for 8 years, do you really want to leave your career in another person's hand? The corporate jobs really aren't as safe as 8~10 years ago. People get laid off all the time from their corporate jobs.

I hope that it gives you comfort in knowing the corporate people have a lot of fear going the other direction, too.

You survived on your own for 8 years, that should give you a lot of confidence. You have done Bus Dev, you can sell yourself in a job hunt; you have learned web development w/o a college degree, you can learn JS and PHP - the languages and DEV platform are getting easier and easier.

Re: Need advice: Entrepreneur to full-time job

#22

Post by richsin » Fri, Aug 29, 2014, 7:56 PM UTC

My job hunt feels like an episode of Seinfeld:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBn8XttrSew

And my Hail Mary if all fails:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zpOVmhkEaQ

Re: Need advice: Entrepreneur to full-time job

#23

Post by csmdev » Fri, Aug 29, 2014, 9:03 PM UTC

andrewfarah wrote: post #12

>How do I get in front of companies and show them that I am an excellent hire. If it was flattering for 37signals (read: influential company) to see this -- http://jasonzimdars.com/svn/ it will be even more flattering for not-yet-famous-company-X to see something similar. 1. pick a company that solves a problem that's interesting to you. or who's founder said something that resonated (in a talk, interview, or essay)…

I'm going to be that guy and say that this is a bad idea. When you're jumping through hoops to get attention, people get used to it. And they start expecting it by default. Especially when it's for a job.

Re: Need advice: Entrepreneur to full-time job

#24

Post by richsin » Fri, Aug 29, 2014, 9:52 PM UTC

csmdev wrote: post #23

andrewfarah wrote: post #12

>How do I get in front of companies and show them that I am an excellent hire. If it was flattering for 37signals (read: influential company) to see this -- http://jasonzimdars.com/svn/ it will be even more flattering for not-yet-famous-company-X to see something similar. 1. pick a company that solves a problem that's interesting to you. or who's founder said something that resonated (in a talk, interview, or essay)…

I'm going to be that guy and say that this is a bad idea. When you're jumping through hoops to get attention, people get used to it. And they start expecting it by default. Especially when it's for a job.

I agree with you, setting expectations is an art.

However, I am ready to go above and beyond at any position I am at for my own personal reasons, so it won't be much of a stretch, just a taste of what's to come.

Good point, though.

Re: Need advice: Entrepreneur to full-time job

#25

Post by andrewfarah » Sat, Aug 30, 2014, 8:09 PM UTC

csmdev wrote: post #23

andrewfarah wrote: post #12

>How do I get in front of companies and show them that I am an excellent hire. If it was flattering for 37signals (read: influential company) to see this -- http://jasonzimdars.com/svn/ it will be even more flattering for not-yet-famous-company-X to see something similar. 1. pick a company that solves a problem that's interesting to you. or who's founder said something that resonated (in a talk, interview, or essay)…

I'm going to be that guy and say that this is a bad idea. When you're jumping through hoops to get attention, people get used to it. And they start expecting it by default. Especially when it's for a job.

That's especially true in the case of 37signals. It was novel the first time someone built a website just to get hired. The 2nd time it was probably still cool. By 5th, 6th or 10th time, the gesture likely lost its novelty.

There isn't a playbook for doing something worthy of a company's attention (sans warm intro). But there's something to be said for non-traditional, creative outreach.