3 ms·

Don't Search for a Job, Create One Yourself

3 points by dejan 17y ago

vitovito 17y ago
Executive summary: Smart kid can't find a direct way to tell faceless companies his smart ideas so they can implement them, so he founds a startup in the vein of Halfbakery, Get Satisfaction or UserVoice where companies can track that sort of thing, and people can write their ideas up. Translation from Bitter Whiz Kid to English: self-important child gets no traction on his resume so starts a web site that he thinks will obviously make the world stampede to his door and he won't have to get a real job. Which is great, because even though this idea is nice, it'll fail because: 1. Companies don't want and perhaps even can't legally use unsolicited suggestions. Despite the "innovation happens elsewhere" maxim, no company actually functions that way internally. If you suggest something and they implement it, do they owe you anything? Look at all the flak Apple gets when they "steal" an idea from a third-party app, whether that's actually ever the case or not. 2. The "innovators" that founded the company are just as self-important as you are. It's their company, they know best, their employees know best, who are you? "You're just some kid," they say. Start your own company if you don't want to be the low man on the totem pole, which you did. Atta boy. 3. You're still just some kid. Or, more specifically, despite all your experience compared to your age peers, you're still terribly inexperienced in the ways of the world. Your entire blog post is a rant against the companies you want to attract to your startup. You have no diplomacy. Go read Richard Hamming's "You and Your Research." I'm sure a lot of people here at HN were/are in the same boat. I would actually complain to friends and family, "Oh, I'm so brilliant, if only someone would just recognize that and pay me money to think neat shit up, I could do that all day." I'm pushing 30 and I'd wager my "experience" from ten years ago was at least as impressive as his is now. You know what? I was a self-important tool. I did the same things: started a business, did well for a few years, tanked it, did some consulting for a years, tanked that, started another business, tanked that. Then I held two "real" jobs with big multinational hardware and software companies, and I think I've grown more as a human being -- able to relate well interpersonally, able to work the system to get my ideas and projects and wants handled, comprehending the value of networking and somewhat being able to do it -- in this time than I did the entire time I was doing my own thing. I get the system and I think landing my next "real" job will be way easier, as will starting my next own business. People told me this when I was this kid's age, too, and I didn't listen, and I didn't get it. I just barely get it now. Good luck, dejan! Try and lay off the bitterness a bit and work on your people skills a bit more. People will always need to see the "proof" of your brilliance in the ways they are accustomed to; it's up to you whether fixing that is more important than the ultimate problem you really want to be working on.
- dejan 17y ago
  Thanks vitovito, I knew I would get such response from somebody, sometime. Glad it happened in such elaborated way. Although I have explicitly expressed to ignore prejudices, you started with one assuming you knew everything about this kid. Moreover, you compare yourself and your biases with me. We're not the same, and especially seems we grew up in different centuries. That makes a difference. The world is not the same, since this moment I write until you read it. I accept I am a kid. I am, and hopefully will stay forever as passionate and young minded =) - I am not bitter, especially regarding the job searching thing. It is a personal reflection on the process. A lot of my friends are going through even worse things, yet many of them ended up with jobs they hate. I am having much more luck than it seems in the text. - The website I've built is far from my first project, and I don't expect a stampede. - I've had full-time jobs in different countries, as well built a successful non-tech (finances) company. I have great social skills. Want a copy of my CV? :) There is a big difference between GetSatisfaction, UserVoice and Aleveo. If you find a real engineer's solution and not a complaint or feature request on those, I'll accept. If you show me that they are helping people get jobs, I'll send you a pack of beer wherever you are. If you show me that they are not Marketing/PR but Open Innovation tools... I'll send you a Chianti from here in Italy. 1. I am aware of this. However, your focus is on the wrong thing. I am talking about lead-user innovation and open innovation. The users >want< to contribute, but companies are not listening. Would you say a young kid needs to get a job to have a great idea? If you didn't at the time, that doesn't meant someone else doesn't: Facebook, Microsoft, ViaWeb, Apple, FedEx... The list is long. And of course these kids have to prove people like yourself that they are capable, as all they get is discouragement and "NO" from people. 2. Exactly. You don't seem to see a problem in that, how the company is losing? 3. Rant is a proof of passion and determination I hold. We need more of that in the world. Go read Tom Peters' "Re-Imagine." My post has not a single line of complaint. I am glad you responded, I wanted to make sure it didn't sound like that so I left the starting disclaimer. Truly, I haven't even read it yet. The points that are made are that: - everyone holds knowledge how to improve the world, companies and their offerings - everyone can be an inventor in the same way he can be a video producer, journalist and musician. The web allows that and the world should adapt to it. - external ideas are a proof of a need to rethink some stuff. - there is no clear channel for companies to reach external ideas that people >demand< to give. Websites are built by designers and IT people. There is no business strategy beyond presence and online sales. There is more that can be done through the web. Accept it or be crushed by it. - the way of recruiting is wrong, as people do not enter companies. Ideas do, so why not take a look at those a little bit for a change, you might find your gold fish, as Apple and Google did. If you don't care about people's ideas, you will lose the people, whether your customers or employees. - companies should not be "faceless" as you say, and should have same "people" skills you mention in their attitude. - companies need more "intrapreneurs" / entrepreneurial spirit as a way to establish an innovation culture that embraces agile methods of testing ideas against reality. I believe that a viable business opportunities can be found in the lines I've written. I have taken one, not out of bitterness, but passion to test against the world. If I do attack businesses, than every single business book (good one at least) does. Thank you for your sincere reply, you gave me space for a reflection on my thoughts. Your points are clear and valid, but that is exactly why I want to stand up to them. They shouldn't be. Not today. Not ever again.

3 points by dejan 17y ago

Executive summary: Smart kid can't find a direct way to tell faceless companies his smart ideas so they can implement them, so he founds a startup in the vein of Halfbakery, Get Satisfaction or UserVoice where companies can track that sort of thing, and people can write their ideas up. Translation from Bitter Whiz Kid to English: self-important child gets no traction on his resume so starts a web site that he thinks will obviously make the world stampede to his door and he won't have to get a real job. Which is great, because even though this idea is nice, it'll fail because: 1. Companies don't want and perhaps even can't legally use unsolicited suggestions. Despite the "innovation happens elsewhere" maxim, no company actually functions that way internally. If you suggest something and they implement it, do they owe you anything? Look at all the flak Apple gets when they "steal" an idea from a third-party app, whether that's actually ever the case or not. 2. The "innovators" that founded the company are just as self-important as you are. It's their company, they know best, their employees know best, who are you? "You're just some kid," they say. Start your own company if you don't want to be the low man on the totem pole, which you did. Atta boy. 3. You're still just some kid. Or, more specifically, despite all your experience compared to your age peers, you're still terribly inexperienced in the ways of the world. Your entire blog post is a rant against the companies you want to attract to your startup. You have no diplomacy. Go read Richard Hamming's "You and Your Research." I'm sure a lot of people here at HN were/are in the same boat. I would actually complain to friends and family, "Oh, I'm so brilliant, if only someone would just recognize that and pay me money to think neat shit up, I could do that all day." I'm pushing 30 and I'd wager my "experience" from ten years ago was at least as impressive as his is now. You know what? I was a self-important tool. I did the same things: started a business, did well for a few years, tanked it, did some consulting for a years, tanked that, started another business, tanked that. Then I held two "real" jobs with big multinational hardware and software companies, and I think I've grown more as a human being -- able to relate well interpersonally, able to work the system to get my ideas and projects and wants handled, comprehending the value of networking and somewhat being able to do it -- in this time than I did the entire time I was doing my own thing. I get the system and I think landing my next "real" job will be way easier, as will starting my next own business. People told me this when I was this kid's age, too, and I didn't listen, and I didn't get it. I just barely get it now. Good luck, dejan! Try and lay off the bitterness a bit and work on your people skills a bit more. People will always need to see the "proof" of your brilliance in the ways they are accustomed to; it's up to you whether fixing that is more important than the ultimate problem you really want to be working on.

dejan 17y ago
Thanks vitovito, I knew I would get such response from somebody, sometime. Glad it happened in such elaborated way. Although I have explicitly expressed to ignore prejudices, you started with one assuming you knew everything about this kid. Moreover, you compare yourself and your biases with me. We're not the same, and especially seems we grew up in different centuries. That makes a difference. The world is not the same, since this moment I write until you read it. I accept I am a kid. I am, and hopefully will stay forever as passionate and young minded =) - I am not bitter, especially regarding the job searching thing. It is a personal reflection on the process. A lot of my friends are going through even worse things, yet many of them ended up with jobs they hate. I am having much more luck than it seems in the text. - The website I've built is far from my first project, and I don't expect a stampede. - I've had full-time jobs in different countries, as well built a successful non-tech (finances) company. I have great social skills. Want a copy of my CV? :) There is a big difference between GetSatisfaction, UserVoice and Aleveo. If you find a real engineer's solution and not a complaint or feature request on those, I'll accept. If you show me that they are helping people get jobs, I'll send you a pack of beer wherever you are. If you show me that they are not Marketing/PR but Open Innovation tools... I'll send you a Chianti from here in Italy. 1. I am aware of this. However, your focus is on the wrong thing. I am talking about lead-user innovation and open innovation. The users >want< to contribute, but companies are not listening. Would you say a young kid needs to get a job to have a great idea? If you didn't at the time, that doesn't meant someone else doesn't: Facebook, Microsoft, ViaWeb, Apple, FedEx... The list is long. And of course these kids have to prove people like yourself that they are capable, as all they get is discouragement and "NO" from people. 2. Exactly. You don't seem to see a problem in that, how the company is losing? 3. Rant is a proof of passion and determination I hold. We need more of that in the world. Go read Tom Peters' "Re-Imagine." My post has not a single line of complaint. I am glad you responded, I wanted to make sure it didn't sound like that so I left the starting disclaimer. Truly, I haven't even read it yet. The points that are made are that: - everyone holds knowledge how to improve the world, companies and their offerings - everyone can be an inventor in the same way he can be a video producer, journalist and musician. The web allows that and the world should adapt to it. - external ideas are a proof of a need to rethink some stuff. - there is no clear channel for companies to reach external ideas that people >demand< to give. Websites are built by designers and IT people. There is no business strategy beyond presence and online sales. There is more that can be done through the web. Accept it or be crushed by it. - the way of recruiting is wrong, as people do not enter companies. Ideas do, so why not take a look at those a little bit for a change, you might find your gold fish, as Apple and Google did. If you don't care about people's ideas, you will lose the people, whether your customers or employees. - companies should not be "faceless" as you say, and should have same "people" skills you mention in their attitude. - companies need more "intrapreneurs" / entrepreneurial spirit as a way to establish an innovation culture that embraces agile methods of testing ideas against reality. I believe that a viable business opportunities can be found in the lines I've written. I have taken one, not out of bitterness, but passion to test against the world. If I do attack businesses, than every single business book (good one at least) does. Thank you for your sincere reply, you gave me space for a reflection on my thoughts. Your points are clear and valid, but that is exactly why I want to stand up to them. They shouldn't be. Not today. Not ever again.