I am currently an intern an The Immunity Project, a YC funded non-profit working on vaccinating HIV. I have been here for only a day so far but I whole heartedly agree. I have been welcomed with open arms, introduced to new and interesting people, and learned thing about the industry I never would have in a college run program. This is only my second time meeting the team, but I am excited to work with them. I will be doing interesting experiments, and legitimate lab work, something not offered in most programs. I also gain access to community between the different companies that is unique and exciting. I definitely recommend this to anyone who gets the opportunity to pursue interning for a YC company.
Good post. I didn't do an internship because I didn't have confidence. I was at a top school and had good grades, part-time dev experience. But there were always much better guys (and gals!) around me. "Just 2 more weeks, I will do a side projects/learn something/whatever". Bullshit! it won't make the difference.
Deadlines passed, not much progress and I had conversations with friends such as "where will you intern?" "emm nowhere" "aw... me at Goldman Sachs/IBM/whatever". It sucked big time.
If you, the reader, are feeling the same just apply for your own good. A lot to win, nothing to lose. Being declined feels scary but a week later you won't remember that. There are better people, there will always be. But you are much better than the majority. Apply! A while ago I wrote a blog post about the regrets and mistakes on this topic http://blog.gedrap.me/blog/2013/08/21/a-guide-on-how-to-not-...
Not even a YC Startup. Any startup. I interned at a very small startup in college that is pretty well known. I learned a ton. Compared to my other internships I had I accomplished a TON more (and more was expected of me, which is good!).
At my startup internship, I pushed real code to real users on the first day.
At my internships with BigCos, I wrote code for 3 months and then I left. I have no idea if the code was ever used. I was never checked on and had to be overly outgoing for guidance. I probably could have sat on HN for 3 months and nobody would have known.
If you are in college or high school, you should be searching HARD for internships. Start early and don't be afraid to email people you don't know asking for help. One of pg's essays say something along the lines of ``take jobs when you are young that are challenging where you will learn the most''. Finding these types of internships can be hard, so the search is difficult.
As a YC founder, I can say that this post is absolutely correct. Also, any intern that can put together all the peices the way the author has done, won't be an intern for long. She/he'll be full-time or a founder in no time.
That ability is one that I look for. It's a rare skill to be able to see the bigger picture.
Also... any UX people with Python, django, JavaScript skills (pick one or two) looking for an internship, drop me a note. Mountain View or Orange County, CA.
Any Ops/sales/hustlers that want to work directly with a founder on growth, brand awareness, and sales, drop me a note. Mountain View.
As someone who's looking for an internship, could you briefly go over the skills you are looking for in an intern. I have a hard time judging myself and don't know exactly how much an intern should be capable of for a YC company or really any company with similar status/success. Obviously, it depends from company to company but still would be interesting to hear your thoughts.
Thanks
I think I'm looking for the same things all early-stage startups are looking for.
My company exists because my co-founder is awesome. He and I willed it into existence, took pretty massive income hits to make it happen, and have put a ton of time and energy into making it happen.
Our company has been given some freedom because angel investors with their own retirement plans, families, and LPs have taken a chance on us and believe in us. The time they devote to us goes well above and beyond their potential financial gain from our success.
Our company took off because early customers have taken a chance on us because they believe in our passion and our product [0]. They are nice enough to not be "nice" and instead tell us exactly what we need to improve to be even more useful to them.
So, I want the same thing that all early-stage startup founders want. I want someone who can help me keep my promise to all those people.
As for particular skills: UX knowledge, javascript, python, django (or any web framework). Probably in that order. I'm not a big proponent of "butt in seat" time (ex: must have 5 years experience with X).
On the marketing/sales/hustler side, It's mostly about follow-up and follow-through. Show me that you have those two talents. If you've built out a marketing campaign, if you've implemented something like Predictable Revenue, if you've setup targets and tracked progress against those target, if you've produced content (blog posts, demo videos, one-page info sheets, white papers), of if you think you'd be good at taking on one of those challenges, let's talk.
But really, I just want someone who understands what it means to me to keep my promises.
Great advice. I am currently in my second summer internship with a great startup. Last summer, I started with near-0 web experience, and built an internal web app that is still used constantly by our sales team. The metrics it provides have convinced more than a few companies to demo us (b2b). I'm very thankful they took the chance on me, knowing there would be a big learning curve. I was working mostly on my own, since our devs were overseas, but it was still a great experience.
At the end of my summer, they raised a series A, and this summer it feels like a whole different company. We're three times the size, and everything is moving even faster. We have four full-time developers in this office now, and I'm working alongside them on production code.
Personally, I think startups can be more valuable learning experiences than big companies, but I can only speak from my experiences. I feel lucky to have been part of this company when it was ~8 people as well as now, when it's ~25 and we have free food and a nicer office and I'm integrated into the "enterprise" (in a good way) development processes.
Compare this to my friend at one of the biggest companies in the Valley (but an older one...), who is in a cubicle all day and told me she could go three days without doing any work and nobody would notice.
