An Bui, Spelled An With 1 N

Earlier this week, TechStars launched HackStars, a program for 

UI/UX guru[s] and/or a strong coder[s] with PHP, Java, Flex, .NET, Ruby/Rails, or Javascript skills…to help interesting startups for a summer in exchange for meeting all the mentors and founders and sitting in on the mentorship sessions

and I read the public comments following the announcement and on Hacker News. Many concerns, with words like “exploit” and “unethical” included in the discussion. Andrew Hyde, the Director of Community for TechStars, is listening and he also makes the point that he is where he is because he figured out how to participate and contribute to TechStars after not being chosen as a TechStars team.

As a bit of anecdotal evidence, I’ve had both paid and unpaid internships with organizations including the federal government, a Fortune 100, and nonprofits. They spanned research and analysis as well as teaching and mentoring. When I went unpaid, I also got a paying job to pay rent and keep my personal lights on. 

So why did I take unpaid internships when I could get paying ones?

I learned the most when I engaged. I engaged when the problems were interesting and hard. They weren’t problems I’d have access to absent the internship(s). When I really cared about the problems, I figured out how to make the math (and my bank account) work. Granted, I’m not a hacker/developer/coder - the market context is different. My skills in C++ and scheme are Z-team at best. I think the fundamentals still apply though. 

Someone develops skills because s/he does. Yes, s/he listens or pays attention, figures out the needs, and seeks to fulfill them. Listening is not enough. Taking action (including hacking) is not enough. Connecting action to the business needs (uncovered via listening) provides the real value and makes the experience valuable.

While unpaid experiences aren’t for everyone, we each can make our own choices. Those choices depend on our own personal situations. If both parties see mutual benefit and assuming no fraud/deception/legal violations, are they not free to enter into whatever arrangement they so desire? 

You can hack on a project, learn those skills while figuring out how you can meet people who want you to realize your potential…

or

You can hack on a project, learn those skills while meeting people whose goals you’re helping to realize. 

Which do you think will make the impact you desire?

Tags: Andrew Hyde, career, interns, internships, TechStars

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 5th, 2009 at 3:51 am and is filed under Entrepreneurship, Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.