This is something that is frustrating to me. Startups will go to MIT and Standford begging for interns and grads but people who are qualified and show enough initiative to do the challenges/job postings don't even get an email back. Just because my school is small and not well known outside of the Midwest doesn't make it inferior.
/rant I suppose I just have to start my own thing if I want to work around smart and cool people.
Bullshit. When I came to SF to be an intern, I purchased my own tickets (my parents helped) and I found a room on Craigslist for three months. (Again, my parents helped with the rent.) I wish I had known about AirBnB.
My point is, if your intern can figure out web programming, the difference between Ruby procs and lambdas, or what fine whiskey tastes like, they can book a flight.
Additionally, outliers aside, talent density outside of the top five or ten schools is pretty dismal. It's kind of a rough deal for the handful of talented people at smaller schools, but you can't expect a company with limited resources to bother going after them.
I accidentally upvoted you. Sorry, but I absolutely disagree. Talent "density" outside of a few media friendly schools is actually very good. Better still, that talent is cheaper.
You can get excellent developers for $50K/year coming out of a "second tier" school which certainly beats having to hire a $200K/year princess out of stanford.
Fact mit, harvard and stanford aren't holy ground for the only places to find smart people. In fact I think the brand name works against them a little. My experience (MIT only) has been that the stars tend to be better but the average tends to be about the same as anywhere else. You get students forgetting data structures, using the wrong algorithms and other such tragedies. I'd bet money that Harvard and Stanford have the same issues.
Go build your own thing, showcase your work and they would come after you.
Working for github or any successful startup would be great but not the only thing in town.
It probably is not the case with github but most startups teach you what not to do more than what to do.
