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Oops - didn't think anyone would be too interested :) Back in 2006, I was attending a residential high school, so inbetween classes I went back to my dorm and
by hwang89 16y ago
Oops - didn't think anyone would be too interested :)
Back in 2006, I was attending a residential high school, so inbetween classes I went back to my dorm and went on Digg to submit and comment. There was still a user ranking system back and I managed to enter the top 5 based on post success (yeah, I spent quite a bit of time on it). Even Jason Calacanis was wondering why anyone would spend so much time on a social bookmarking site: http://calacanis.com/2006/05/22/why-do-people-contribute-who-is-dirtyfratboy/ http://calacanis.com/2006/05/22/why-do-people-contribute-who... (that's me lol)
During that summer, Jason decided to revamp the Netscape site into a Digg competitor and needed some users to accelerate the content generation process: http://calacanis.com/2006/07/18/everyones-gotta-eat-or-1-000-a-month-for-doing-what-youre/ http://calacanis.com/2006/07/18/everyones-gotta-eat-or-1-000...
I immediately jumped at the opportunity of a job and fortunately, I was chosen to be one of the first Netscape "Scouts". I managed to somehow get interviews from the WSJ, Chicago Tribune, and some other media outlets in the Chicagoland area.
As a naive high schooler, I treated the whole thing as a fun situation with easy money and never really bothered to network with any big names and never considered social media a viable career option. In an ironic twist, I've switched majors in college (screw law school) and now I'm looking to come back. I never expected any of this to become a life-changing moment, but I'm definitely thankful for being able to experience it all.