<i>Engage with the general startup community: Build up your twitter account, blog readership, and Hacker News karma score</i><p>If someone makes a hiring decision based on my NH karma score or # of twitter followers, I don't want to work there.
I'm surprised this blog keeps popping up. I realize the guy got an MBA and wasn't impressed with his experiences, but isn't constantly harping on MBA's a little like the 14th century flagellants? Bad MBA. Bad MBA. Forgive me of my sins. /rant<p>I guess being in an MBA program myself means I know the realities of the system, so maybe these articles aren't for me, but all the same...
Full disclosure: I'll be starting in a parttime MBA program this fall, in a top-10 B-school. I write code for living, but want to explore what else is out there for me.<p>I find some of his advises interesting, especially proposing your own internship project.<p>However, I strongly disagree with him just dissing a person who wants to get involved and is willing to do "anything". I really would like an MBA like that. One, who is willing to learn, take on projects beyond his/her comfort zone, make a contribution where it is needed. That person, IMO, is almost an entrepreneur, as s/he is taking a risk, which most other MBAs aren't.<p>Saying "I'll do anything" doesn't make the MBA-intern clueless, rather makes him a lot more motivated and open-minded about his career and future path.<p>Just for example, imagine a Product Manager/Marketing person who can actually do QA and comes up with product vision after playing with a product, rather than just doing surveys. Imagine an HR person who would actually work with the Dev/QA to understand the company culture, as it grows, rather than just follow the path that has been laid out before him/her. Etc...<p>Edit: I take criticism very well and would love to learn the fallacy of my argument. If you do decide to downvote me, please do but I'd love to understand why.
I'm not trying to be mean, but right now my perception is that a guy with an MBA is probably not much more useful to a startup than a thoughtful guy who reads TechCrunch and gets microeconomics.<p>Could anyone summarize the core insights they got from their business education?
Great advice. The main thing that seekers should takeaway is that an extra body often creates MORE work, not less. The more self-sufficient someone can present themselves as, the better.
I did my MBA internship with a startup (15 employees) by helping them find some channel partners in south-east asia. This was a startup where the product was out and sales team was being expanded.<p>Overall, I agree that there is very little application for MBA framework in a startup environment. If nothing else, the MBA candidate should be put in charge of closing some sales.
I agree with a lot of this. I tried for the good part of a semester trying to get a non-technical startup internship before Rich @ WePay had a similar post. Being able to explain what I can bring to the table besides "I'll do anything" is the reason why I have the internship I have now. Vague terms like analysis got me no where; specifics they liked.
> 8. Do an unsolicited SEO analysis if you want to do marketing<p>Not very humble....<p>When you see something that is wrong, there are two possibilities - it's actually wrong or you are.<p>Even if it's wrong, your analysis may not add any value even if it's completely correct. For example, better SEO may be 9th on their list of priorities and they only have resources for the top 5.<p>It's not about you.