I disagree- I think that there are a lot of interns out there who don't have the right information in order to optimize their search for internships.

I learned computer science a lot later than many of my peers, I stumbled around a lot in the startup world before being able to intern at one of the more well-known companies in the valley- this was only after I had learned many lessons and been rejected or not even contacted by many companies because I didn't know how to present myself in a format that made recruiters want to contact me.

Any resource that helps potential interns to learn more about recruiting in the valley- from finding an internship to choosing an internship- is a good one.

but there's just so much bloat out there that just wastes their time when they actually could be actually learning how to better present themselves.

I think that with most products, there are at least some people for whom trying out the product would be a win-win. The issue is finding those people.

Your comment is really validating; thanks for your input!

This is really interesting. Some friends and I had trouble getting leads on who to "sell" our prototype to, and we had the thought that it may be an even more legitimate problem than the one we were previously trying to solve.

Can you comment more on the sell process to individual users with HN and Twitter: did you find and go after people that tweeted or posted about related topics to your products, or look for people that might want your products, or did you let them come to you through your posts or tweets?

The residual activity on Twitter from a #1 HN post is where we focused our energy, mainly by retweeting, engaging, following, etc. I think these HN posts also helped build our SEO and especially as some bloggers wrote about their experiences with our products.

Hello HN!

I'm Patrick from this thread. I agreed to having this thread published because I thought it might do good for interns out there. Not everyone works for very established tech companies, and there's inherently more risk in that. However, there's a lot of potential to learn from the experience as well.

Some things that I hope people take away form this thread:

- The dream is out there, but don't let anyone sell it to you easily. Do the research, check your facts, and be aware. However, people in Silicon Valley are generally good people, and they remember and understand what it is like to be young and not know what to do. I always will.

- Do what you think is the right thing: I would never have left my prior engagement if my would-be boss had not okayed it (we had a very long conversation at the time). This is a small world, and your word holds a lot of weight. It's probably best not to throw your word around when you can't keep your promises.

- Take a risk, once you feel you're ready for it. By venturing into the unknown, a lot could have happened to me, but I felt prepared to take on any challenges. I am under the impression that not taking a conscious, calculated risk (with positive expected value) is the biggest risk of all

Cheers, Patrick

> I would never have left my prior engagement if my would-be boss had not okayed it (we had a very long conversation at the time).

Once you broached the subject, did he really have any choice? At that point, he has to question whether your heart would be in it if you came to work for him, and whether you might bring down the rest of the team. At this point, you are likely getting the OK regardless of whether it is just a minor inconvenience to him or a major blow.

I think it depends on the way you broach the subject. I made sure that he knew my heart would be in whatever job I was doing, and that I would be perfectly happy to remain in New York.

But, you make a valid point. The discussion itself makes it very hard to say "no." I made serious errors in my judgement of the situation, and I wanted this post to inform people about those errors so that they don't make them as well.

I hope people (including myself) can learn both from what I did right and what I did wrong.

I'm obviously biased here. I don't think Patrick made errors because the outcome for a personal standpoint will be greater due to the choices he made.

After reading your take on the matter, I've got to say it sounds like on the whole you had a great experience. Being able to tolerate uncertainty like you did is something a lot of people simply cannot do, and they get in the habit of avoiding it early on. It's what keep a lot of people in jobs where they are seriously underappreciated.

Also, on an entirely unrelated-to-the-industry note, young people rarely get the chance to meet and get to know (much less live with!) people significantly different from themselves. It's a very rewarding experience, and I'd expect you'll see benefits of it for decades to come. Many people today come out of college without ever having dealt on a personal basis with anyone but their peer group and a few dozen adults who were all in positions of authority over them. That's not very conducive to understanding the commonalities and compatibilities amongst all people.

As someone who interned at a YC S12 this summer, this is spot on. Patrick's summed it up, really: you can find an awesome company where you finish up not believing how much you learnt in 3 months. I did! Just think carefully about what you're getting yourself into.

I flew across from the UK for it, having never been West of Yellowstone, and by god did it pay off.

Yes, he was very forthcoming. He and I are on really good terms. I decided to write the blog at that moment because I knew Arjun was also writing his, and I thought it would be really neat to see two interweaving sides of one story.

It's definitely a tough line to walk. I was lucky in that it was a blessing in disguise, and this summer was probably the best one of my life. Your intern won't remember how much they were paid (though non-alcoholic beer money is nice), but they will remember the kinds of things they picked up along the way.

It sounds like you did right by your intern, despite the difficulty of trying to train college kids who have probably never had to make a living as a coder.

Also, a story to tell goes a long way.

Yes- renting out is against most lease agreements, but in this case: No- the lease agreement was a custom lease agreement set up by OP. How do I know? I used to live there.

Hey Patrick, thanks! Hows it going? Pretty stressful here.. give me a call and we'll talk sometime.