start_UP
Okay.
So I just started a job at a startup in Silicon Valley. A few weeks ago, reading that sentence, I would've thought Wow! How exciting and fun and cool.
No.
Well, okay yes. Definitely.
But also, no. More like How chaotic and stressful and disastrous.
When I meet other people who say they work at a startup, I now know the proper response. A hug and a glass of wine. Eh, no bottle. Bottle of wine. I'll pat their arm and say, 'Aw you poor thing.'
I don't even know how to describe the level of chaos. It's a 4-person team. We've sold a product that we haven't actually developed yet or fully even thought through what the product will look like when it is developed. Every day, we re-invent it; trying to figure out what it is we're building/have built/is already sold/is half-built.
I'm coming from 3 months experience. Extremely beginner. And who do I work with? Two people from Stanford and Cambridge with phDs. No frikkin clue how I snuck in to be in this startup. I'm so honored, but also so overwhelmed.
'Training' is non-existent in startups. My 'training' was them describing to me the problem that they needed fixed and that they didn't know how to fix it and that's why they hired me, to bridge the gap. Right. Me. Me, 3-month experience me. Me, bootcamp grad me. Not even a bachelors degree, me. Nope. Somehow they think I'm the one for the job.
So now, my days consist of frantically raiding Udemy courses from 6:00am-9:00am trying to remember how to create a MEAN stack app from scratch for the entire company to present their demo to. Oh, yeah, which is in 5 days. Literally.
Welcome to startups in Silicon Valley. We sit around a table, trying to figure out how to sell this best, big, new idea in a building with 400 other startups with the best, big new idea. We promote things that we do not have, nor even know if we will have in the near future, but that companies have already invested into us in. How else would we get paid right? Such a strange, strange world. I'm still trying to understand it.
I will say this. It's hands-on experience. Though I feel entirely over my head, I am building a real live web app for a real company, for whatever that's worth... And I hope it's worth something because that's my one job. Small, insignificant me is going to try to pull this thing off.
So I just started a job at a startup in Silicon Valley. A few weeks ago, reading that sentence, I would've thought Wow! How exciting and fun and cool.
No.
Well, okay yes. Definitely.
But also, no. More like How chaotic and stressful and disastrous.
When I meet other people who say they work at a startup, I now know the proper response. A hug and a glass of wine. Eh, no bottle. Bottle of wine. I'll pat their arm and say, 'Aw you poor thing.'
I don't even know how to describe the level of chaos. It's a 4-person team. We've sold a product that we haven't actually developed yet or fully even thought through what the product will look like when it is developed. Every day, we re-invent it; trying to figure out what it is we're building/have built/is already sold/is half-built.
I'm coming from 3 months experience. Extremely beginner. And who do I work with? Two people from Stanford and Cambridge with phDs. No frikkin clue how I snuck in to be in this startup. I'm so honored, but also so overwhelmed.
'Training' is non-existent in startups. My 'training' was them describing to me the problem that they needed fixed and that they didn't know how to fix it and that's why they hired me, to bridge the gap. Right. Me. Me, 3-month experience me. Me, bootcamp grad me. Not even a bachelors degree, me. Nope. Somehow they think I'm the one for the job.
So now, my days consist of frantically raiding Udemy courses from 6:00am-9:00am trying to remember how to create a MEAN stack app from scratch for the entire company to present their demo to. Oh, yeah, which is in 5 days. Literally.
Welcome to startups in Silicon Valley. We sit around a table, trying to figure out how to sell this best, big, new idea in a building with 400 other startups with the best, big new idea. We promote things that we do not have, nor even know if we will have in the near future, but that companies have already invested into us in. How else would we get paid right? Such a strange, strange world. I'm still trying to understand it.
I will say this. It's hands-on experience. Though I feel entirely over my head, I am building a real live web app for a real company, for whatever that's worth... And I hope it's worth something because that's my one job. Small, insignificant me is going to try to pull this thing off.
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