Summer Internships

A number of college students are asking me about internships at various Silicon Valley companies. Many of them already live here so that is half the battle, but not all of it. Text from DJCline.com.

When a company gets to a certain size it gets the idea that it has to hire people from an Ivy League college. This is particularly comical if the company was started by dropout from a state college. I see company recruiting brochures and websites that look like Benneton ads promoting diversity but find employees that all went to the same colleges. Innovative companies need people who not only look different but THINK different.

So when young people ask me advice about which companies to work for I have to think hard about the student and the company. Companies that started and are still based in Silicon Valley tend to be more open to people with unique combinations of skills. Older companies from outside tend to hire people with narrower skill sets. What kind of person are you? If you managed to get here, you didn’t exactly roll off an assembly line.

When companies ask me about potential students, I tell them to go wide. You don’t know where the next great idea will come from. Hiring someone who is good at filling out paperwork and you will fill your company with clerks. Hire freaks and geeks and your company will make so much money you can outsource all your paperwork to people who like that sort of thing. Your problems don’t come in neat little packages and neither will your solutions.

If it doesn’t work out it is better to find out now. Take a chance.

Copyright 2008 DJ Cline All rights reserved.

Posted by dj in Blumbers, Commentary [1,241 Views]