Would a start up hire me and value me out of college?<p>Computer Engineering w/ math minor,
1 year left to graduate,
4.0 GPA,
worked for a start up for 6 months (during school),
Average 20-21 hrs/semester,
interned with intel,
3 (soon 4) years of research (protein folding, parallel computing, DSP parallization),
Experience with: C/C++, Python( focusing on a lot), PHP/MySQL, Erlang, Assembly, VHDL, and others
Take software development seriously<p>Just off these few things, can I crack the top start ups of Silicon Valley? And I might consider sleeping on the couch :P
<i>can I crack the top start ups of Silicon Valley?</i><p>Sure. But, why wait? If you've got a year left, that means you've got this summer to go. Would another internship be possible?<p><i>And I might consider sleeping on the couch :P</i><p>Working at a startup doesn't (and shouldn't) mean working for charity or for low/no pay. You'll be able to get your own place, with a mattress and everything :P
Yes, but try to do a few projects over the next year which are strongly relevant to your top five choices. Toss the results up on Github - or better, attempt to monetize the results (i.e. never tell when you can show).