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Where do you go to get a good job - employment agencies, online, school?

I am an entrepreneur. Should I go back to school or should I move to San Francisco and try to get a job at a startup?

  • If I were to go back to school I would want first to pay down a significant portion of my student loans. Then I would have to spend at least two years getting my degree in computer science. I am 24 years old and by the time I graduate from college I would be around 27. I am an entrepreneur at heart and don't want to waste my time and money if I have my mind set on becoming a business owner. If I were to go back to school I would learn a ton more about programming but I might learn the same amount in the three years I spent away from school. If I moved to San Francisco I would be able to experience a new way of life. I am a well-rounded person with decent skills in HTML, CSS, JavaScript and PHP I want to learn a lot more. I love learning everything about entrepreneurship and programming.  I want to get a job at a startup so I know what a startup really is and to meet people. I have my own dreams that I plan chasing after. My only work experience is waiting on tables and bartending I done a few small projects but they  haven't made much money. If I moved to San Francisco what should I learn before I go? Thank you for reading and for those who answer thank you as well.

  • Answer:

    Just start applying for jobs. No degree will teach you how to run a business. There's a lot of book-learning that is valuable, so don't be afraid to go back for classes. But experience is the real teacher. If your programming skills are already decent, just apply for jobs. No small company cares about your degree. They care about what you can do. So jump in! Put together a couple of decent portfolio pieces, just so people can see what you can do. That will help you stand out. As you apply, rank your opportunities by how much you can learn. Generally, that means the smallest places. Join someplace big and you could be stuck on a floor that's all developers. You'll learn more about coding, but little about product design, and nothing about business. Join a company of 10, though, and you'll learn a ton. Going for the small companies may mean that you'll have to pay your own moving expenses, but you're prepared to do that anyhow.

William Pietri at Quora Visit the source

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Thank you for A2A this. Entrepreneurship is like sex. The first time is really painful. You don't know how awesome it is unless you do it multiple times. Same is the case for programming. Just go ahead and do it. But, remember, school has its own set of benefits. If you were to go to an amazing school, say Harvard or Stanford, there is a possibility you find your tech co-founder there. I'm not saying you cannot do it out of school but the probability of finding another like minded technopreneurship junkie is really high in such schools. Having said that, if you do have an amazing idea in your head, if you feel that you can convert it into a product (at least a crappy prototype) all by yourself, then chuck school. Just do it.

Gokul Nath Sridhar

Thanks for asking me to add my thoughts here. If you feel you want to be an entrepreneur, stop taking any additional classes, they will not help you. Get a job at a startup, preferably one in your area of interest, run by a team of serially successful entrepreneurs. You will learn more from such a team in a year then you could learn in a decade of classroom studies. I wrote a bit about the experiential / classroom trade off here: http://infochachkie.com/why-entrepreneurs-hate-most-mbas/ Best of luck to you.

John Greathouse

Get a job for someone doing what you want to be doing or similar, learn as much as you can and bring as much value as you can to that company. Get used to having debt one way or another if you want to make money that's just one thing that will always be there. Focus on connecting with people that are good at what you aren't and over all have fun never take anything too seriously of its meant for you it will happen if you work hard and pay attention

Bryan Zn

All I can say is why can't you do both at the same time? There are plenty of people who work during the day and study at night. The fact is that having a college education is actually good to have, especially a degree. While there are a number of individuals who manage to beat the odds and did well without a college degree, there are plenty out there who failed. You shouldn't consider going to college a waste of time or money because of that - it's an investment in your future which no one can take away from you. Besides, hate to say this but if all you have is "decent" skills in HTML, CSS and so forth, you can easily be replaced by someone cheaper than you meaning that your skills aren't too terribly marketable.

Jeff Schaffzin

I will not discuss about going to school and not going to school it is individual preferences. As a entrepreneur visualize yourself what needs of customers you are going to solve using your skills. Try to add database also in your portfolio. Coming to non technical skills think about go to market strategy based on your visualization.

VB Reddy

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