

Ask HN: Is it a good idea to leave school for a year to join a startup? - aml183

I&#x27;m thinking about leaving school for a year and joining a startup. I technically will be enrolled as a full time student and for the purposes of school will be a practicum. It will probably be a year and then I&#x27;ll go back, but open to staying longer.
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bbcbasic
Other answers are good, so I will add something else to the mix.

Bear in mind that if you go with the startup, you will have an awkward
decision of whether to leave after 1 year (giving up any further vesting in
shares) or stay and perhaps give up on school or delay it further.

If they don't give you shares then don't bother. And if they do they will
probably try to screw you on the terms so you walk away with nothing (or
needing serious $$$ in savings that you can exercise your option or lose it) -
search HN for all the gory examples of that. And even if you get all that
right they'll probably fail anyway and you will end up with nothing. Not being
negative just very realistic.

I agree with the statements about learning something. This can either be
technically interesting or about the startup life and strategies so you can
learn from their mistakes when you start your own.

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aml183
My bad on lack of detail.

-Pay is most likely $70K. -Job is in SF. -I don't get school credit for this. -Will push my graduation date back either a semester or two semesters depending on how many credits I want to do per semester. -College Fund (Will graduate with no debt)

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zer00eyz
Based on the pay alone and the location I would say this is NOT a good deal
for you unless your getting housing thrown in for 70k... after taxes and rent,
your going to have very little money for the experience. Even if you were
living at home, 70k would not be such a great offer.

The reality is your going to get a year of experience but I don't think that
is going to do a lot for your resume, and your putting off graduating a year.

As for getting the experience, well theres a ton of need in the open source
world. If I were looking at two resumes where they were fresh out of school
I'm going to look longer at your github account than the year you do at this
job.

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davelnewton
Given the essentially complete lack of context I don't see how this is even
remotely answerable... so "maybe".

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cweagans
Just stay in school. The terms aren't that great, and there will always be
another startup. Getting your degree will facilitate finding other
opportunities.

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skadamat
You have to answer one question -- will you learn a lot? Will you learn more
at the startup or at university? Do you have other work experience /
internships where you can graduate and get a job? If you don't, take the job.
If you have a good resume, solid experience performing whatever craft you're
doing, then it's probably best to stay in school!

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zer00eyz
One last thing, there is a law in CA that even if your a salaried employee, in
computer programing field, they are liable for overtime unless you make more
than a certain amount.

That number was something like 83k the last time I checked. 70k is not 83k...
if it isn't over the exemption minimum your dealing with a company that has NO
idea what its doing.

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zer00eyz
1\. What is the pay like (I'll be frank, this matters)

2\. How far/remote is it from school? same city/town? someplace else?

3\. Are you sure your going to go back?

4\. Will you getting credit for this, and if so how will it impact your
graduation date?

5\. How are you paying for school now?

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rajacombinator
If you have to ask, no.

