6 ms·
Take me to Silicon Valley: 19 year old designer seeking opportunity
- shahed 15y agoI love this! I'm a 16-year-old entrepreneur of http://viatask.com http://viatask.com. Hope you get accepted, feel free to ping me I can possibly hook you up with an opportunity in Silicon Valley. I have plenty of friends out there!
- pork 15y agoVery cool, but please don't drop out of university. For the vast majority of students, this is a decision that will come back and bite you in the ass when whatever you quit Uni for comes to an end.
- feralmoan 15y ago"* My school gives me the opportunity to postpone my studies for as long as I need to, so I actually don't need to drop out (my mom will sleep better)" ... plus the world might end this year
- randomdata 15y ago> this is a decision that will come back and bite you in the ass when whatever you quit Uni for comes to an end. I know you're trying to help, but these kinds of absolute statements can really mess with people. I got pretty much the same speech when I decided to leave school more than a decade ago. Logically, I still cannot figure out what they were talking about. I have never met anyone who cared about what school you went, how well you did there, or if you went at all. Irrationally, however, I wonder how many days I have left until it hits and all the regret sets in. Anyway, don't let me stop you. I just wanted to point out that getting so involved in other people's lives, people you don't even know especially, can be quite damaging.
- jpiasetz 15y agoWhy make the text at the bottom of the page a non-clickable image?
- kloncks 15y agoAs someone who's dropped out of college (three months ago) to start a company in Silicon Valley, I would urge you to think a lot about this decision. I know I have. It's a very serious decision and one that a lot of people take hastily, not knowing what it will really entail until much later. College is important. I plan on going back before I die. You can get involved with startups, work with them and learn from them, without leaving college. Our world is all about networking, and just like I had an amazing network in SV from my dorm room in Ohio, so can you in Eastern Europe. I'm not trying to convince you of anything. I've made my decision and I feel convinced it was the right one. I just think some people make it too hastily. Feel free to ping me if you have any questions.
- bri3d 15y agoI'd urge him to consider carefully not only because dropping out of university might not be wise, but because he'll probably end up in the US on an H-1B visa. An H-1B visa isn't a big deal, but it prevents you from working for a few weeks on contract to try things out, and it makes it quite a bit harder to change companies or quit. Valley companies tend to overwork and under-compensate, and an H-1B makes it -that much- harder to get out of a terrible situation if you find yourself in one. An American designer in the Valley can say "no thanks" and change careers or move elsewhere with a minimum of effort compared to the issues associated with leaving with an H1B. EDIT: It turns out I don't know much about visas and it's hard to get an H1B without a degree (thanks HN - learning a lot!). See replies for a wide variety of speculation as to which visa type would work in this situation, and feel free to sub in your choice of visa where I initially said H1B, because I think the danger of a poor working situation is either similar or even more pronounced with another type of visa.
- untog 15y agobut because he'll probably end up in the US on an H-1B visa. Actually, getting an H1B visa without a college education is near-to-impossible. I have a college education that isn't in computing, and I've had to provide evidence of six years of work experience as an alternative. I doubt our 19 year old friend will be able to do that. Plus he can't "work for food for two months"- in fact, just that being on his site would probably be a giant red flag for immigration. You have to be paid a prevailing wage. The easy answer here is to do internships. I'm not sure what the visa situation around them is exactly, but I'm sure it's easier than getting an H1B.
- aaront 15y agoLooks great, just a few little things: * "I am Filip Santa, 19 years old designer from Slovakia" sounds a little strange. Maybe something like "I am Filip Santa, a 19 year old designer from Slovakia" * In your timeline, instead of "Learning what is layer", maybe "Learning about layers" * Also in the timeline: "Trying first webs & posters", maybe "Designing first web sites & posters" And, here's my OCD peeking through, the images seem to have a colour profile associated with them, which clashes with mine producing: http://i.imgur.com/6BV6o.png http://i.imgur.com/6BV6o.png (try making the background transparent) Best of luck!
- kylelibra 15y agoIt bugged me as well, but I assumed English wasn't his first language, so it is forgivable in my book.
- FilipSanta 15y agosorry, it's been already years since I've returned from US, so English may not be perfect
- xarien 15y agoWhen I read that first bullet, my first thought was of Borat. Pop culture wins again...!!!
- wyclif 15y agoFilip: You need to rewrite the copy; some of the English is severely broken and you are using hyphens where there shouldn't be any. If you need help, email me and I'll help you as much as I can (I'm an English Lit. major and native speaker).
- phatlovesyou 15y agoyou seem like kind of a nice guy, and I'm sure you're a great designer. that said, try to not start your resume off with a picture of some boobs.
- mattblalock 15y agoHrm. Didn't notice boobs, wondering if Filip is really smart and knows it will lure men in... very good sales pitch, IMHO.
- moocow01 15y ago"I would love to join to your team in Palo Alto, California" You may want to broaden that statement - Palo Alto is a very small piece of the Silicon Valley pie
- devs1010 15y agoYep, I was just thinking the same thing. A lot of the "hot" startups are actually in San Francisco itself so may want to take that into account. Beyond Silicon Valley proper there are companies scattered throughout the Bay Area region also.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- mahyarm 15y agoI'd second that. You want to say in the Bay Area. Also as a young person SF would be a lot better for him than Palo Alto. Palo Alto and the South Bay is a suburb where developers go to start their families.
- FilipSanta 15y agothis site was originally designed for one startup from Palo Alto.. but since it's here on HN, I'm really opened for everything in Bay Area :).. i've got some first offers already which is awesome :)
- samstave 15y agoI recommend this guy spend some time learning to code asap. He is 19 - almost half my age. You have YEARS ahead of you, and if there is one thing I regret - it was not learning to code when I was a munchkin.
- alexholehouse 15y agoFor what it's worth, and there's a lot of feedback here relating to technical issues/lifestyle choices etc, but considering you're applying to be a designer I thought the site looked and felt awesome. Totally engaging, easy to read and follow, and I read right to the end. Great pitch.
- metachris 15y agoAbsolutely agree. The only faux pa i've seen is that the call to action button on the bottom only starts loading when hovering over it, becoming invisible for a short moment.
- FilipSanta 15y agothanks.. this should really be just about design, my friend've done coding as quickly as it was possible so i know it's not css/html masterpiece
- FilipSanta 15y agothanks! i really appreciate it
- jc4p 15y agoIs the entire thing just a Photoshop Save for Web document with some jQuery attached? Also the "LET MY DREAM COME TRUE" image's hover state not being preloaded made me sad. Okay to actually be constructive: It's a good time to be trying this because it's the beginning of a new year so H-1B visas are available. As another self taught young developer who's extremely eager to leave his full-time job and go to school next semester, I can't say I agree with his goals. But if that's what you want to do, it's a good attempt at getting out there. Most companies I would know that would be willing to set up a visa for a person who wants to drop out of college in Europe would be start-ups, however I don't know if a pure Graphic Designer is in demand with start-ups. I would expect them to rather have someone who's very good at graphic design and can code the basics of the designs themselves rather than have someone who's fantastic at graphic design but is just a one-trick pony. When I worked in a start-up one of the biggest deciding factors we had when interviewing designers (right after their taste) was how much of the design they could implement themselves. It made little sense to pay someone to design a Photoshop document and send to a developer to turn into HTML or a layout file where we could pay someone else to design it AND make the HTML file themselves. Most of the time that person didn't ask for 200% of the pay of someone just doing Photoshop work either.
- milesskorpen 15y agoFilip went to high school in Washington state, so I think he might actually be a US citizen. Would be good to mention somewhere on the page though.
- jc4p 15y agoHe says for half a year. It was most likely a study-abroad program else he should've definitely stated that. I'm an eleven-year permanent resident currently waiting on my citizenship paperwork so I'd be sad if he was already a US citizen and I wasn't ;)
- FilipSanta 15y agoyes it was foreign exchange program, but when i look back, this half a year in US was really life-changing.. i'm citizen of Slovakia of course :)
- benwerd 15y agoHe lost me at "hello guys" and a picture of cleavage. Great design otherwise though.
- cozykozy 15y agoYeah, I was thinking the same thing. I was wondering if the person was making a play on words with 'silicon,' but considering his grasp of English, that might be giving too much credit.
- pazimzadeh 15y agoValley = Cleavage.
- FilipSanta 15y agoyes it was like like a wordplay with "silicon" & "valley" that why u see silicon boobs in the header :).. i was thinking about putting Pamela Anderson there sayin' "I know a lot about silicon & I think Filip would definitely fit there" but i didn't have time to put it in, couse I had to start studyin' for exam (which I screwed of course, because I spend most of time between christmas & new years eve working on this :)
- jerfelix 15y agoDon't confuse silicon and silicone. You can end up with severely deformed mother boards.
- reinhardt 15y agoWow, I didn't even pay enough attention to the picture to notice it's a cleavage.
- justjimmy 15y agoHaha me too… After being told there's cleavage, I went back to take a look at it again – and noticed the 2 massive balls (circle) right below it. This is too much!
- jordaninternets 15y agoI am in a very similar situation. Its tough being 19.
- jc4p 15y agoI'm also 19, I'm currently leaving a 6-figure a year development job to enter college. It's not tough if you try hard.
- anonymoustrolol 15y agoGreat marketing for yourself. Unless you are 100% sold on Cali (I've lived here for 5 years and I'm 50/50), I'd use this to get a contracting job and live with family and friends. Then come out here and start something when you feel comfortable/saved up. Preferably this company involves bubbles (you seem to like them in various forms and are good with them).
- mbesto 15y agoThere's a lot of sentiment in the HN comments that he should not leave university. For a community that is fairly bent on restructuring the education system, I have to ask: what gives? Is going to college worth it or not?
- pakeha 15y agoThe extent to which having a four-year US degree equivalent will assist this young man in getting an H1-B visa cannot be exaggerated. It's possible without it, but, AFAIK, it then becomes a non-standard process which will require quite a bit of effort/explanation on the part of the sponsor - i.e. the immigrant will need to be quite a special person. Professional work experience can be substituted for study (I think at a 3:1 ratio, i.e 12 years of professional work experience = 4 year degree), but for obvious reasons that doesn't seem like a good option in this case. I'm not an expert on this topic by any means, but I do speak from personal experience.
- justindocanto 15y agoGreat design, however having your text as images makes me want to cry. In terms of design, very attractive (minus the cleavage. that's considered trashy over here) and engaging. I read from top to bottom. Copy is nice despite being broken english. Only gripe really is you should use some kind of @font-face (check fontsquirrel.com to make your own) so that 1. your text is well, actually text 2. highlight-able, click-able & copyable 3. your load time will increase dramatically 4. SEO! Great idea. Great execution as a designer. Wishing you the best of luck. ALSO: Even if you don't get recruited, you still have a bright future ahead of you. Don't get discouraged and keep trying. =)
- hendrix 15y agoNot to be too harsh, but why would xyz cool startup hire you when they can hire someone from the usa with a degree?
- bitops 15y agoBecause this kid obviously has drive, ambition, and talent. Caring enough about his dream to put together a site and posting it to HN demonstrates that he's paying attention and he wants to connect with other driven people. Also that he spent 4 days on it when he could have been out partying shows a good deal more vision than a lot of 19-year olds. He also is willing to make sacrifices and go halfway across the globe to join a team. Doubt you'll see his manager worrying if he's spending too much time on reddit. It's also a big deal to leave your country and go somewhere where you have little base. So in a nutshell, because he has the classic immigrants ambition, and won't rest on his laurels like perhaps someone who was born here would.
- JEVLON 15y agoTalent and effort should have more value than a degree. Sure it takes some effort to get a degree, but with designers the portfolio should be far more important.
- pthreads 15y agoDoesn't one need a 4 year college degree (or equivalent work experience) for H1-B visa?
- fbuilesv 15y agoYou do, unless the company happens to be pretty well connected (think Google, Apple). Then they can get you a visa which might not be H1-B but you get the same "benefits".
- durandal1 15y agoH1-B requires 4 year bachelor or 3 years of professional experience in the relevant field for each missing academic year. The only other working visa I can think of is the O-1, which is given to "outstanding individuals", which basically means high profile researchers, world renown designers etc. His only option is an internship visa.
- brainless 15y agoMore than anything this shows how people all across the world look up to Silicon Valley. Well ok, nerds and designers (web), tech entrepreneurs and the type. But still, for this group of people Silicon Valley is like a dream. I am myself planning to stay, work and learn from the valley sometime soon. And I am sure there are hundreds like me.
- RealGeek 15y agoHe will require a H1-B visa to move and work in US. But unfortunately, you require a 4 year degree to be eligible for H1-B or 12 years work experience. So, H1-B is out of question. The only viable option is to join a University in Silicon Valley and work part time in a start up.
- justjimmy 15y agoNo matter which choice you make, best of luck! If US doesn't work out, take a look to the north (Canada - Toronto and Vancouver)!
- stevoyoung 15y agoStay classy HN. What the hell were you all doing during christmas and new years when he was doing this? Give the kid some credit - he has more drive than most people I know...and by the way, what does your resume look like?
- teflonhook 15y agoVery difficult, if not impossible, to get a visa without a degree. Also you'll never be able to work "for food" because US immigration requires you get paid at above market levels so US citizens are not put out of a job. Finally, you'd have to show your skills are in demand and scarce- which I doubt design is. You'd have more luck being a nurse or teacher. Your best bet is getting into a US university.