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Ask HN: How much industry experience before attempting a startup?

6 points by null_ptr ↗ HN
How much industry experience do you think a new grad should get before attempting a startup? Is there a minimum x, where anything less than x would look bad to employers should the startup attempt fail?

4 comments

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schiang
I don't think there's a minimum. There's plenty of startups that were started by college students or even younger. As long as you're smart and know where you want to take your startup, you can succeed.
null_ptr
There was an article posted here yesterday [1] about how companies have two hiring pools: fresh grads and experienced workers. Those caught in the middle (graduated in recent years but have no to little industry experience) had it tough.

I was wondering how many years one should put in at a company right after school, in order to have an experience safety net should they want to work at a traditional company once more, if their startup fails.

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/20/business/recent-graduates-...

zmitri
I think it depends on the person and the industry. Some ideas require a lot of insight, research and connections to execute well, and some don't.

I started my own company two years after graduating (paid off all my student loans first) and probably got more "experience" in the first 2 months running my own thing than 2 years of working for someone else.

I did get some experience working a job, but to be honest, most of the learning I did was on my own time and not on the job. Coworkers generally do not have that much time to mentor you or guide you no matter what they say in the recruitment process -- they want you to fill a pretty specific role and probably aren't going to make a special job just for you.

I don't know you, so it's hard to say, but if are concerned about things looking bad to employers on a resume I don't know if you should be focused on building your own company right now.

null_ptr
I'm not concerned about things looking bad on my resume. I'm confident in my skills and what I achieved so far at work and on my own before then.

I'm just wondering if there's a minimum industry experience that the majority of employers use as a cutoff line, much like having a degree. 2 years, 3 years, 5 years? That kind of thing.

I think delaying a startup to meet this criteria, provided it's not too far away, would be a smart and responsible decision.