4 ms·

Start my Start-up for a required internship

1 points by thatusertwo 16y ago

I'm a college student with a university education, in order to graduate we are required to do a co-op/internship. I want to spend my 4 to 6 weeks getting my start up off the ground. What sorts of things could I do to convince my program administrator to allow me to do this as an alternative?

HelgeSeetzen 16y ago
Internships are about learning, so you need to convince your administrator that you will get a valuable learning experience. "Learning by doing" is a cliche that probably won't be enough for your administrator. Universities have a mindset that connects learning directly with teaching (not doing). They aren't completely wrong on this, in that good learning comes from doing things properly and teachers can often define "properly" for you. My recommendation would be to join an accelerators or incubator program. That gives you the mentors/teachers necessary to satisfy the "learning" requirements of the university. Alternatively, try to find experienced partners for your stand-alone venture (sort of arranging your own private accelerator program). As a last resort, maybe you can get a traditonal internship in an established start-up that relates to your space. You could then pitch your project within that start-up. Who knows, they might pick up on it.
- jeffmould 16y ago
  Agree completely with your response. I can see both sides to the university theory of teaching, not doing that make the experience valuable. On one side, with doing your own startup there are no control structures in place on you so you are often just shooting at moving targets with the goal. The university likes to see specific learning experiences from the internship. On the other hand, some internships are nothing more than glorified mailroom people with no "real" learning being achieved. I like your advice on going with an incubator or accelerator program to get started. Another option is if the OP is dead set on doing his/her own startup as part of the program, would be to go into the administration with a predefined list of objectives/goals to accomplish within the time period that are directly related to the degree path. For example, if it is a business degree, make the goals business oriented, such as incorporation, accounting structure, etc... If the degree path is programming related, make the goals such as having an MVP developed or building out the landing page for the site, etc... Even interning at an established startup can get turned down if the administration does not feel the experience is valuable. So the whole point of the effort would be to prove to them that you will learn/gain more by doing your own startup.
thatusertwo 16y ago
Thanks for the suggestions guys, the course coordinator said he couldn't let me do it cause then anyone could say that is what they were doing.

1 points by thatusertwo 16y ago

HelgeSeetzen 16y ago

Internships are about learning, so you need to convince your administrator that you will get a valuable learning experience. "Learning by doing" is a cliche that probably won't be enough for your administrator. Universities have a mindset that connects learning directly with teaching (not doing). They aren't completely wrong on this, in that good learning comes from doing things properly and teachers can often define "properly" for you. My recommendation would be to join an accelerators or incubator program. That gives you the mentors/teachers necessary to satisfy the "learning" requirements of the university. Alternatively, try to find experienced partners for your stand-alone venture (sort of arranging your own private accelerator program). As a last resort, maybe you can get a traditonal internship in an established start-up that relates to your space. You could then pitch your project within that start-up. Who knows, they might pick up on it.

jeffmould 16y ago
Agree completely with your response. I can see both sides to the university theory of teaching, not doing that make the experience valuable. On one side, with doing your own startup there are no control structures in place on you so you are often just shooting at moving targets with the goal. The university likes to see specific learning experiences from the internship. On the other hand, some internships are nothing more than glorified mailroom people with no "real" learning being achieved. I like your advice on going with an incubator or accelerator program to get started. Another option is if the OP is dead set on doing his/her own startup as part of the program, would be to go into the administration with a predefined list of objectives/goals to accomplish within the time period that are directly related to the degree path. For example, if it is a business degree, make the goals business oriented, such as incorporation, accounting structure, etc... If the degree path is programming related, make the goals such as having an MVP developed or building out the landing page for the site, etc... Even interning at an established startup can get turned down if the administration does not feel the experience is valuable. So the whole point of the effort would be to prove to them that you will learn/gain more by doing your own startup.

thatusertwo 16y ago

Thanks for the suggestions guys, the course coordinator said he couldn't let me do it cause then anyone could say that is what they were doing.