I'm in this position right now though I have yet to get any offers. Flew to Seattle last week for Amazon but was turned down and that's just one in a long line.
Do I feel like these have been unfair? No. In each case I can perfectly well understand why I was passed over: I screwed something up, whether an algorithm on the whiteboard or incorrectly describing a certain data structure. While it's a bit depressing to read stories like this about SV firms competing to hire college students, I've come to realize that I'm just not good enough to get those positions.
Right now my plan is to stay where I am for a year (I do have an offer from a local firm, it's just not that exciting) and build up a portfolio of work. I've got products shipped out there in the wild but nothing I'm that proud of. However, a year of weekend projects will give me a portfolio of working products and (hopefully) make me more attractive to companies in Silicon Valley.
I'll be releasing my senior thesis project into the wild soon and the corresponding paper has already been accepted for publication. I've started submitting pull requests for open source projects on Github with bug fixes.
Right now I'm not good enough. A year from now, I will be.
Just want to say I support your willingness to work and improve yourself. On the part of "a year's worth of weekend projects" might I suggest going for quality rather than quantity.
Back when I had a developer position, when it came time for hiring, my boss would hand-select his "top picks" from the resume pool and ask us (the developers) to give a general audit of their work.
For me, looking through all the apps, there was never anything robust. The codebases proved nothing more to me than the candidates ability to follow a ruby on rails "setting up a todo list" tutorial.
I got accused of being overly harsh but I think you need top standards when hiring.
Anyway the point is its very rare that a candidate will have production quality apps running in the wild. And its even more rare that those apps have any more substance than you'd get following a paint-by-numbers rails tutorial.
Thanks! By 'weekend projects' I really meant two or three projects drawn out over several months. I've started working on one but it's at the bottom of my priority list right now, that'll change in a few months when I'm done with my thesis.
I've also come to realize how skewed your perspective is based on who you're surrounded by. I'm one of the best in my CS department which made me think that job searching would be easy, but now I see that I'm the best of a small group that isn't that spectacular to begin with. Really wish I'd taken the harder path four years ago and gone for a better/larger school.
Once you're "good enough", your view might change. The world might already change. The companies you'd want to work for may no longer be the one.
I think you have a great start: have a goal and pursuing that goal. Many young people just stay afloat without knowing where to go or what to do.
I used to have a similar desire: to work in a company that people were buzzing about (Microsoft, Google, Twitter, you know who they are). Had a few chances to try one big company and one start-up and decided they were not for me. I definitely do not want to spend most of my time thinking, living, breathing technology, learning every prog. lang. under the sun, have to prove myself against my colleagues (competition always exist)... and work lots of overtime.
I opted for a more stable job where I can exercise good software development practices and have more says on technical decisions. I have "downtime" once in a while where I can hone my skill further or polish the software we develop. The occasional downtimes give me great relief and a chance to clear my mind. When your mind is clear, you suddenly can explore other things: be it researching real-estate, learning how tax works, diversifying my financial portfolio, and basically being normal (socialising, etc). Those activities tend to open my mind to look at things beyond the technology world: other business opportunities outside hi-tech world.
I hope you're successful in achieving your goal though. There's nothing wrong pursuing what you truly want. Once you got it, you might like it, or you'll decide to have another goal (^_^).
In each case I can perfectly well understand why I was passed over: I screwed something up, whether an algorithm on the whiteboard or incorrectly describing a certain data structure.
Most people move to Silicon Valley because they get positions at large companies that have budgets to fly them out. What many college students don't realize is that are many small startups struggling to hire people. They just aren't well known or have the resources to fly people from far away so they hire friends, students and engineers nearby.
If you really want to work in Silicon Valley, I'd say don't wait. Pay for you own plane ticket and spend a week or so in the area. Your perspective will definitely change.
I think I'm going to do exactly that. Spring Break is coming up, I've got no other plans and I'm sitting on a bunch of airline miles that could get me to SF for free, plus I've got friends in the area I could probably crash with.
Any tips on networking there? I grew up in the Bay so I know my way around but I have no idea where to start meeting people.
There's HackersAndFounders.com, HackerDojo.com and a few others. Haven't been to that many events actually. I know a lot of startups coming out of Stanford though. Feel free to email me (contact info's in my profile) and I can put in you touch if you want.
One thing that might not obvious to people moving here is most of silicon valley is very suburban, and if you work in the south bay, most of your coworkers are going to be married with families in their 30s at the very least. Even in the startups. If your single, try to live and work in SF proper. Far more of your coworkers will be in your age range and the gender ratio will be somewhat more balanced. The commute from SF to the South Bay is a frustrating hour minimum.
Rent wise, SF and Palo Alto have about the same rent, even though half of Palo Alto and Mountain View is 1930s craftsman track houses.
> half of Palo Alto and Mountain View is 1930s craftsman track houses.
Huh? Tract houses are a 1950s (and newer)s thing and Craftsman is a 1910-20s thing.
While PA does have old areas, San Jose, founded in the 1770s, has more. My house is 1902 and there are neighborhoods where that era dominates. Other neighborhoods are dominated by Victorians. Pick a decade, and there's a couple of neighborhoods.
PA's Eichlers (which are 50-70s) are nice if you like that sort of thing.
This is one of the reasons I decided to move to New York instead, after having lived in the suburbs for my entire life, I just couldn't take it anymore. There are so many more things to do in Williamsburg (where I live now) and the easily accessible areas of Manhattan (East Village, SoHo, Union Square, even Midtown if you really feel like that) than there were even in college.
If you're joining a startup or a company where you're offered equity as part of your compensation package, spend some time to understand what it means. You don't have to be an expert at it, but a couple of hours of learning here could go a long way, plus that knowledge is likely to be useful again.
Compensation is not everything, and for most startups the expected value of your options == $0, but you should still understand what you're getting or giving up so you can make a sound decision.
Do I feel like these have been unfair? No. In each case I can perfectly well understand why I was passed over: I screwed something up, whether an algorithm on the whiteboard or incorrectly describing a certain data structure. While it's a bit depressing to read stories like this about SV firms competing to hire college students, I've come to realize that I'm just not good enough to get those positions.
Right now my plan is to stay where I am for a year (I do have an offer from a local firm, it's just not that exciting) and build up a portfolio of work. I've got products shipped out there in the wild but nothing I'm that proud of. However, a year of weekend projects will give me a portfolio of working products and (hopefully) make me more attractive to companies in Silicon Valley.
I'll be releasing my senior thesis project into the wild soon and the corresponding paper has already been accepted for publication. I've started submitting pull requests for open source projects on Github with bug fixes.
Right now I'm not good enough. A year from now, I will be.