> There is only one reason to join a startup as an employee: you really really really believe in the mission and you reallyx3 believe that the team can execute.
...what if you really need the money (and never finished college, so no bigcorps are interested)?
"People who haven't been to college aren't likely to have those kinds of connections. If they do, they're not going to be desperate for work."
It's really not that hard to meet and develop a relationship with someone who works at FB/Apple/Google/Etc. Especially if you live in the Bay area and go to meetups/network a little.
I would drop the "especially". Outside of a precious few areas, networking opportunities are hard to come by outside of the few companies that have offices in your area. Even then, more likely than not those companies have HR policies that require applicants to go through the black hole regardless of where they came from.
The whole world is not the Bay Area. Most of us do not have it so easy as to be able to walk into random meetups and leave with three potential contacts at decent tech companies.
I have been living in the Bay area for the last 8 years but originally I grew up and went to university in Ireland. Hardly the center of the tech universe at the time.
I made a lot of contacts by organizing local meetups, travelling to different conferences in other parts of Europe and fostering relationships online.
I now work as a software engineer at Facebook, prior to that I worked at Apple. Effective networking takes a lot of work and can be achieved even if you are living in a remote area.
> I live in Canada, and can't move for a variety of reasons.
> I grew up on a farm
Not everyone lives in the bay area. I'm sure there are plenty of places where it really is "that hard", and it sounds like derefr might live in one of them.
I was exaggerating a bit. Local bigcorps aren't interested (I live in Canada, and can't move for a variety of reasons.)
I don't really have a network, though; I grew up on a farm and taught myself to program, and everything I've worked on so far has been either a remote contract (which usually ends up falling apart with refusal to pay for services rendered), or a startup (which usually ends up with my salary slashed to 1/8th industry standard under a "we're working for equity, right?" declaration.)
Right now, my wildest dream is a programming job that simply allows me to work eight hours a day and pays for a 1br apartment and food. At this rate, I'm almost considering leaving the industry entirely and working in retail or something.
I feel for you and understand that trying to recommend what you could/should do over the internet is hilariously arrogant/un-empathetic and everyones advice will converge to cookie-cutter ones like github profile/open source contributions blah blah.
Unfortunately, most of the obvious advice is true. Since you don't have the "normal" credentials of college/past employement/referrals, you will need to put some time in building an alternate set.
The good news is our field is an awesome one for credentialing yourself.
If you don't feel like you have the stamina/drive for a open source projects etcs, how about competing on topcoder?
Not the op but I'll comment on this. I have no degree. I have applied to all of the big names and never got any further than a rejection email (even that is rare).
I get interviews from startups and medium size companies so my resume can't be that awful, and I know they aren't looking at my portfolio or repos (because that can be easily verified).
...what if you really need the money (and never finished college, so no bigcorps are interested)?