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Why I Didn't Get A Real Job
- ataranto 15y ago"I’ve never been one to base my actions on others’ expectations. Just ask my dad, with whom I was having arguments about moral relativism by the time I was 13." I bet this guy is a blast at parties.
- georgieporgie 15y agoI read the bit about your family and dues to society and thought they were being silly. Then I realized you must be a rich kid who has the option of playing entrepreneur for a summer, and lost sympathy. The reason society thinks you need to wait is because one is expected to become self-sufficient and somewhat financially secure before pursuing such endeavours.
- ulisesroche 15y agoSo, what do you do, exactly?
- nasmorn 15y ago"at least 50 orders of magnitude" Definitly not a physics major. Not math either probably considering he used a two digit number in the first place.
- micmcg 15y agoSo what does "The New Student Union" do beyond be "an online magazine run by and for college students covering the issues that they care about."? The term "startup" is thrown around WAY too much these days, you aren't a start up, you have no business model, you are basically just a multi contributor blog. What are you doing that other student publications aren't? When you say "If you have a game-changing idea" do you honestly thing NSU is "game-changing"? What game are you changing? You come across as incredibly entitled and arrogant in your post, I hope for the sake of the success of any future "start ups" you participate in, it's not the case. "I have no deference to authority figures and have never been shy to voice my opinions, oftentimes to my detriment." This doesn't make you a good entrepreneur, it makes you an asshole.
- coryl 15y agoAs a first-time founder, I can’t escape admitting that starting fetchnotes is an immense learning experience http://www.fetchnotes.com http://www.fetchnotes.com
- revdinosaur 15y agoWhy do people always think they can get away without at least consulting a designer?
- tarmstrong 15y agoThis comment came off as really grumpy. You have exactly the "get in line" attitude the author was complaining about. You come across as incredibly entitled and arrogant in your post, I hope for the sake of the success of any future "start ups" you participate in, it's not the case. Entitled? I don't think he feels entitled to some measure of success. I think he feels entitled to a healthy dose of experience, which is what he'll get. Arrogant? Read his post again. I'm not getting the arrogance vibe. "I have no deference to authority figures and have never been shy to voice my opinions, oftentimes to my detriment." This doesn't make you a good entrepreneur, it makes you an asshole. 1. Those aren't mutually exclusive. 2. It doesn't make you an asshole, it makes you one of the few who can make a difference.
- jmitcheson 15y agoI think the concepts of 'paying your dues' to society, and waiting until one is older to do your own thing is a symptom of the generation gap. Older generations consider the gen Y age group to be entitled, spoilt, lacking commitment, and generally impatient with regards to earning their place in the world. When you combine this with the "new startup" - cheap, glamorous, very low barrier to entry for the technically adept, then it's easy to see where the conflict comes from. Twenty-somethings see the perfect opportunity to jump into the booming tech startup area by themselves where they have a huge advantage - being both born with the web and often still in the safety net of college or the very early stages of their career. Older generations never had this type of opportunity, and simply don't think the younger people have deserved or earned it. Personally I think that there is no better time to do your own thing and be innovative than your early twenties, and that conventional workplaces eventually erode the type of skills needed for a startup; of course, then there is the other issue - if building a startup is like jumping off a cliff and making a parachute on the way down, is someone still a "real" entrepreneur if there is a safety net at the bottom?
- ulisesroche 15y agoI don't think the word innovative should apply anymore to social networking games, to-do lists, or rounded corners.
- tomjen3 15y agoSo you don't believe that a to-do list can be innovative?
- ynniv 15y agoHe probably meant "Hello World" applications - those that have been done so many times that the expected innovation is negligible. Certainly someone could innovate there, but we have seen many people claim that theirs will be radically different only to end up being more of the same.
- gte910h 15y ago
- thejbf 15y agoTook the same path, founded a "real" company (not a magazine, a software company sells b2b software) and grew the team up to 3 and made the company profitable. But one year later, I've flopped. Now I've been working as an employee for 4 years and at this stage this is where I should be. Of course, I'll start companies in the future but you have to know the low end-side of your the job and gain experience.
- gte910h 15y agoYou don't have to by any means, but it's often much cheaper and easier to learn how to do software on someone else's time.
- thejbf 15y agoShipping software is the trivial part. Communication, leadership, connections, understanding how businesses work were not trivial for me since I've spent all of my life in a technical chair.
- erikstarck 15y agoWhen I co-organized a Startup Weekend here in Sweden we managed to get some press in the local newspaper. This drew the attention of people who normally wouldn't attend such an event. One of them was an elderly, retired gentleman by the name Per-Otto (who actually turned out to be the oldest participant ever in a Startup Weekend). We talked quite a lot during the weekend and he told me his life story. Turned out he had wanted all his life to become an inventor (that's why he was there). It wasn't until he was close to retirement that he managed to make a deal with his employer (the same one all his life) and he got enrolled in to some sort of education program for inventors. All his life he wanted to be an inventor but he couldn't until he was at the brink of retirement. Our generation, on the other hand, has all the opportunities in the world to shape our own lives. It has never been easier to build a life and an income around your passion. We have opportunities that Per-Otto couldn't even dream about in his younger days. And yet so many people still choose not to pursue their dreams. What a waste. Something must be broken. The education system? The working environment? Our culture? I don't know. I only know that things need to change. Questioning the need for "a real job" is a good start. EDIT: Here he is, btw, drawing one of his inventions: http://www.flickr.com/photos/erikstarck/4509754873/in/set-72157623698297963 http://www.flickr.com/photos/erikstarck/4509754873/in/set-72...
- atarian 15y agoI like what this guy is trying to say; don't wait to become 'legit' before pursuing your ideas. I can agree with that. However, I feel like he has an irrational bias against people who choose to pursue opportunities to work at so-called brand name companies. My end goal is to be in the startup business as well, but I believe working at a large company will teach someone more than just job skills. It'll reveal how decisions are made/executed and give an opportunity to evaluate a company's efficiency.
- astrec 15y agoWith respect to decision making, one thing you might encounter at a large company that you're unlikely to see in an early stage venture is management science / operations research / decision analysis. Try and learn a little - these are skills which transport across professions and industries.
- mgkimsal 15y agoBesides, put yourself in an employer’s shoes. You’re interviewing two college graduates — one who started a company and can clearly articulate why it succeeded or failed, and one who had an internship from a “brand name” institution. If I’m interviewing with someone who chooses the latter candidate, they’re not a place I want to work for. If the 'startup' succeeded, likely that person isn't going to be applying to a job in the first place. If it failed, there's likely going to be difficulty for that person to really understand why it failed ("I just needed 6 more months of runway!" or "People are just too stupid to get what I was doing!"). The 'startup' person is far more likely to bail in the next year to pursue their next startup idea. This notion that people will be far more willing to hire a failed 21 year old 'startup addict' because of the experiences gained is an odd one, and something I suspect they use either as a justification to parents/friends, and probably don't actually believe it themselves. "I'll prove my value to future employers by demonstrating my lack of respect for established authority and contempt for organizational hierarchy (unless I'm at the very tip top of it)". I'm sure people will be falling over themselves to offer you top management jobs after your "social todo facebook widget android app" fails because it ran out of funding. Come to think of it, this is probably a perfect game plan for silicon valley. :) EDIT: Before someone points out that I too am a grumpy old timer, I'd simply prefer to see the OP actually doing something worthwhile with fetchnotes. Perhaps, you know, actually work on the startup. Writing blog posts about how you can't work for other people because you don't take orders, or how you argued with your dad about morality... none of these are "working on your startup" - they're just self-absorbed rants. EDIT2: There's loads of options in between 'startup' and 'internship'. Some of us, you know, actually had real paying jobs during college. What would an employer want to choose of those three? Someone who understands that providing value to a company leads to an actual paycheck, someone who failed at a startup, or someone who went for 'brandname' status? I know which one I'd choose.
- rfrey 15y agoThere are at least 50 orders of magnitude in the difference between the strategic and innovative thinking required by a founder and that of even the most integral first employee. Hope that attitude isn't reflected in his option grants to his first hires. Anyhow, Alex talks about lack of "deference" to authority, but what he really lacks is respect for authority. This is pretty common with high-spirited teenagers, and it's often really useful to society as they challenge the status quo. It can be a nuclear reactor powering "impossible" visions with the right person. It's also really annoying.