
How I Graduated from Harvard, Turned Down Google, Got a Job Through Twitter - derekflanzraich
http://www.derekflanzraich.com/2010/06/how-and-why-im-joining-clicker/
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kenjackson
Good post. Although one thing I don't get. You comment about not being being
happy with (potentially) being employee #20,000 at Google. But why did you
attend Harvard? Harvard is a pretty large school, and certainly far more than
20,000 students have graduated from it.

I've met many great people who skipped college altogether. Do you think that
you were pushed into Harvard, and if you could do it again, you'd skip it? Or
at least attend a far smaller school?

It just seems like to me Harvard (or most any college) is a big company where
you pay them, rather than them paying you. Of course at Harvard you get to
learn a lot. But I expect you'd learn as much in four years at Google (or even
Microsoft or IBM for that matter).

Just curious...

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derekflanzraich
Great point, really.

With Harvard, the honest answer is that I didn't truly consider many other
options-- I think I'm not the only person who'd say I attended Harvard because
it accepted me.

That being said, I did learn a ton (more so from my friends and
extracurriculars than academics). Harvard is obviously an academic
institution, so technically I paid them for the opportunity to do whatever I
wanted & use their own resources. If I didn't want to do something, I didn't.
If I wanted to spend all my time building sweet shit, I pretty much did.

Google, in a large way, is built on this model-- but it's still a job, it's
still got serious responsibilities, and, most importantly, I wasn't sure I'd
learn as much there in four years as I would somewhere else.

But I guess we'll see, right?

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jonknee
I'm not sure an internet TV Guide qualifies as "awesome shit that matters",
but hey congrats on the new gig. At least you'll have responsibilities a lot
faster than at Google.

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yoseph
Derek, I think what you've done is great and I wish you the best of luck.

I have just one little piece of unqualified advice. In the last couple
paragraphs, the blog post felt a little too much like marketing spiel. I get
that you're a non-tech (me too) but be aware of that line. It can easily put
people off.

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dbz
Are you an engineer? I didn't quite understand what your major was.

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theashworld
he mentions some sales position somewhere, so I don't think he's eng

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derekflanzraich
Majored in Government/Poli Sci. It was a flexible major, by which I mean I
ignored it entirely.

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inboulder
So basically you majored in arts and crafts at Harvard (and you're surprised
BSing poli sci papers wasn't difficult?), wrote a bunch of blog posts and
tweets, have an annoying 'young upstart' linkedin page, but don't know a
linked list for a lincoln log, and are going into a non-technical entry level
position for a random start-up?

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derekflanzraich
Yup.

