

Why I Didn't Get A Real Job - alexschiff
http://newstudentunion.wordpress.com/2011/06/05/why-i-didnt-get-a-real-job/

======
erikstarck
When 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-72...](http://www.flickr.com/photos/erikstarck/4509754873/in/set-72157623698297963)

------
mgkimsal
_Besides, 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.

------
micmcg
So 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
_As a first-time founder, I can’t escape admitting that starting fetchnotes is
an immense learning experience_

<http://www.fetchnotes.com>

~~~
revdinosaur
Why do people always think they can get away without at least consulting a
designer?

------
jmitcheson
I 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
I don't think the word innovative should apply anymore to social networking
games, to-do lists, or rounded corners.

~~~
tomjen3
So you don't believe that a to-do list can be innovative?

~~~
ynniv
He 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.

------
rfrey
_There 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.

------
ataranto
"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.

~~~
StavrosK
But can anyone ever really _be_ a blast at parties?

~~~
reinhardt
You mean, like, _literally_ be a blast?

(obligatory: <http://xkcd.com/725/>)

~~~
StavrosK
No, objectively.

------
nasmorn
"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.

~~~
donaq
It definitely sounded like he pulled that number out of his posterior.

------
thejbf
Took 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
You 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
Shipping 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.

------
atarian
I 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
With 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.

------
ulisesroche
So, what do you do, exactly?

------
georgieporgie
I 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.

