

Making It In Silicon Valley When You Have Zero Connections - weston
http://westonludeke.com/2011/11/26/how-to-find-your-dream-job-w-zero-connections/

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patio11
There's some good advice in here regarding attitude and hustle.

Can I give one more piece of advice? If you (correctly) figure out that the
reason you aren't getting given jobs / funding / etc is a lack of connections,
then you should optimize for achieving connections. This doesn't come
naturally to everybody, myself included, but it isn't harder than lots of
things which are table stakes to being an engineer.

Similarly, if you keep getting told No and think you need social proof... then
get social proof. Plan B, whining about how humans have exploitable
deficiencies in decisionmaking processes such as requiring social proof, is
distinctly suboptimal.

~~~
groaner
Plan B section 2, whining about how exploitable deficiencies opens up people
to being defrauded by vendors, consultants and recruiters who can talk the
talk but not walk the walk, is still legitimate (though not constructive).
There's getting social proof, and then there's not being a douche. Sometimes
the line isn't clear either.

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itmag
If you want to network, it's a good idea to create something of value first.

I did this in the form of a magazine
(<http://www.interestingtimesmagazine.com>) which has allowed me to reach out
to a ton of people.

I am always sending out links to people and hooking various e-acquaintances up
with each other ("why don't you interview this friend of mine for your
podcast?").

When you do this for long enough, I think everything just starts to fall into
place.

It's not something I do with a conscious plan, most of it is just because I
see an opportunity to do something cool (ie get my buddy on a podcast or
whatever).

In the cheesy New Age hoodoo-voodoo $29.95 frou-frou flim-flam world of self-
help we call this having _abundance mentality_. It has a lot of connotations,
one of them being that if you see a resource as available and abundant to you,
and don't come from a super-greedy frame of mind, things will be easier. There
is probably a logical explanation why this works too.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Habits_of_Highly_Effe...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Habits_of_Highly_Effective_People#Abundance_mentality)

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diego
Sorry for stating the obvious. If you come to SV and have zero connections,
then make connections. It's really easy, there are events, meetups, talks,
hackathons, you-name-it pretty much every day. The culture is so pervasive
that sometimes you make industry connections even without trying (e.g. at the
climbing gym).

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geebee
I enjoyed this article, but I think it could be titled "Making it in Silicon
Valley when you have zero technical skills". Also not sure the blog is for
Hustlers and Geeks, seems like it's more for hustlers.

Which is alright. I remember the huge parties in the first dot com boom, when
I met a guy who answered the question "what do you do?" with "I work with
startups". "What do you do for them?" "Everything". Interestingly, people at
these parties weren't especially interested in meeting developers.

The culture seems very different now. For starters, people don't waste nearly
as much money on big parties, and the value of technical skills seems to have
risen dramatically... well, it was always useful, but now people actually
understand that value.

I would figure step 1 of making it is to pursue an idea and create a minimum
viable product. If you have programming ability, you (along with a couple of
friends, I would hope) will have something to pitch. Otherwise, all you can do
is say vague things like "I work with startups".

~~~
weston
I consider a "Geek" anyone who likes tech things, they don't have to be
technical.

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garethsprice
Edit: I originally wrote a paragraph with lots of F-words to make the point
that the author was using so many expletives that they lost impact. Got
downvoted, probably because the point was ironically lost amongst the
expletives, so removed the offending paragraph.

Other than that, once I decoded it, I enjoyed the article.

~~~
billpatrianakos
Aww man, don't edit because of downvotes. I saw it before you edited and I
knew what you meant. It's more important to make a point than to appease the
karma police (not related to the Radiohead song). Fuck the karma po-lice.

------
jaysonelliot
This guy might find a way to make it into my office and shake my hand, but I'd
never hire him.

Anyone who can write the sentence "I’m a salesman and a hustler to my core"
with a straight face has the wrong kind of passion.

If you're driven by a love for programming, or designing products, or the joy
of developing a business, it will show.

This blogger sounds like he's just driven by the desire to make money and
retire young, and is looking to get in to a startup because he's got visions
of stock options dancing in his head.

~~~
findm
You might not hire him but I might. The truth of the matter is that sometimes
you do need people like him. Hustle to me is the willingness and ability to
get things done. This guy just chose to apply hustle to sales. There's nothing
wrong with that.

Better code, design or "joy of developing a business" don't always win in the
market and I'm willing to bet that the one that hustles harder will.

Besides I'm pretty sure start-ups, founders, companies are all driven by some
desire to make money. Difference between you might be degree. Just because
you're not comfortable with it doesn't justify pontification.

I just found the manner in which you laid judgement a bit harsh.

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dwynings
The only thing I would add is to not place so much emphasis on shaking _the_
CEO's hand more than any other founder.

~~~
weston
You're exactly right... any founder would be just as good.

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philh
This is perfect for me - I have zero connections, and after I graduate I hope
to make it in SV. Thanks for posting.

~~~
billpatrianakos
Why I'm SV? Are you from Cali? Why not make it where you are first. Use the
resources you have easy access to before jumping on the bandwagon. If I could
give some advice to anyone with dreams of VCs, startups, and, Ferraris I'd
tell them to exhaust every resource you currently have available, build up
some cred, _then_ move out to SV but only if that's the right place for you to
grow as a founder or as whatever you're trying to become.

~~~
philh
I'm from England. I want to move to the US for various reasons. SV merely
happens to be my first choice.

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billpatrianakos
This kind of comes off as thinly veiled marketing for Ramit. I subscribe to
his emails and I'm a fan but I didn't expect to see this here I'm the front
page.

That didn't bother me as much as something else in the post. The article
assumes you should want to make it in SV. I'd say ask yourself why you want to
make it SV? Do you really need to go there to make it? I have a lot of respect
for silicon valley and the things that come from there but there are too many
people who want to make it in SV because it's trendy. They read HN and want to
be just like the cool hip startup founders.

We should be doing what's right for us and our companies. Not all of us even
belong in the entrepreneurship game. I briefly dreamed of coming to SV and
trying to make it with a cool tech startup. Then I realized that I had no
business there right now. It would be far better to get some momentum here in
Chicago, build up some success, and grow my companies to the size they are
meant to be while avoiding VCs on purpose.

There's too much hype around Silicon Valley and I'm afraid it's trendiness
will be the death of its reputation for innovation. If things continue this
way I fear that SV will be known for hollow, get rich quick types. Like Wall
Street on the west coast. Do what's right for you. You might not want to make
it in SV after all. Try to make it in Salt Lake or St. Louis, Hickville
Alabama or Chicago or wherever it is you find yourself. I doubt anyone could
succeed in a new location without the skills to make connections to succeed in
their original location.

~~~
weston
I didn't mean for it to come off as marketing for Ramit. He has written some
good stuff and I got something out of it, so I thought I would share to "pay
it forward" so to speak to other people.

While I specifically was writing about Silicon Valley, I think many of the
lessons could be applied to other cities and other industries. If you can
build your startup in Chicago and can be successful, like Groupon or
37signals, I applaud that as well!

~~~
billpatrianakos
Well then I stand corrected. I trust you're not a paid shill for Ramit so I'm
not so concerned about the marketing anymore. Like I said, I like Ramit, I'm a
subscriber, and I once had a brief back and forth exchange with him over
email. He's a nice guy.

I get that you were speaking specifically about Silicon Valley. My criticism
has more to do with the general trend I see of people advocating that you
should rush out to SV and try to strike it rich in Startupland. This post just
got me thinking of that so please don't think I was being critical of you. I
was just reminded of something related and was speaking about that. The Ramit
thing was critical of you but I trust you're sincere so, like I said, I stand
corrected on that point.

