5 Benefits College Students Get from Startup Experience

A journey of 1,000 steps starts with 1 step

During my undergraduate college days, Facebook just started to take over MySpace, but there weren't opportunities at the time for students to get their foot in the door with startups for real-world experience.

In the real world, flashy degrees and test scores from big-name schools to pile on your resume are nice to have but not required as succeeding in startup space is all about execution. This mantra is reiterated by many successful entrepreneurs such as Chris Sacca and Casey Neistat by telling everyone "Ideas are cheap, execution is everything."

Fast forwarding to the summer of 2014, startup opportunities were everywhere with founders welcoming help from passionate college students. I had a wonderful experience volunteering for two startups at MassChallenge. 

Now on the other side as startup founder, I am excited to carve out opportunities for college students as startup experience is the future with many college students interested in joining the likes of disruptive companies: Uber (taxis), WhatsApp (messaging), and Tinder (dating). 

Currently, many fitness passionate college students are helping out JustHuynh due to these benefits. 

1. Personal Branding
At corporations, your professional presence is generally just on LinkedIn. With a startup, you learn how to sell - crucially important when you're interviewing for a job, stating your case for promotion, negotiating price of an expensive item, and even dating/proposing to a significant other.

Working with JustHuynh - college students will be able to grow their personal brand digitally as they motivate others around them to train together in achieving their fitness goals. Instead of just a LinkedIn presence, college students can enhance their personal brands by establishing presence on YouTube, Facebook, SnapChat, Instagram, Twitter, and Blogs. 

2. Real World Experience  
Learning in the classroom helps as a theoretical base in preparation for the real-world, but as Mike Tyson says, "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face." Instead of relying on just class projects and club activities to convey your potential as a star employee - being able to speak about your startup experience will put you head and shoulders above your peers for any position.

If you're a person who wants to wake up motivated everyday to provide value to society instead of dreading another 9-5PM day working in an unfruitful corporate culture, then startups are for you. 

Best of all at JustHuynh, some college students and MBAs are able to earn independent study academic credit. Who doesn't want to gain startup experience and academic credit to enjoy Senioritis? 

3. Global Network 
With a distributed startup team, you'll grow a global circle of colleagues who all share the company's mission regardless of your physical address.

With JustHuynh, you have the opportunity to be recognized as a star in your community - being able to "break the ice" with anyone.  Your quality interactions with customers, teammates, partners, and leadership team can result in stellar reference letters and referrals for career opportunities - putting you ahead of the pack during job application process. 

4. Growth Potential 
For many college students, internship experiences may involve lots of administrative work, coffee pickups, and printer visits as some companies aren't comfortable trusting college students with significant responsibility due to potential losses for the company if the college student fails.

As a founder, I thrive on surrounding myself with the best people and providing autonomy for teammates. Teammates are expected to set SMART goals and be accountable for those goals. This contrarian trust unlocks people's confidence to recognize their potential. If you get that "phone call" from me as former classmates, co-workers, or friends can attest to, you know that an exciting opportunity is on the line so it's your choice to run with it or not.

As a New Englander, my favorite sports organization is the New England Patriots. With Head Coach Bill Belichick and Quarterback Tom Brady as the mainstays for 5 championships, the Patriots thrive on signing free-agents who were viewed as "past their prime" from their previous team, drafting well, and convincing players to sacrifice their individual stat lines for team success. In the greatest Super Bowl ever, the Patriots exhibited a #nevergiveup mentality to will their way.

Successful startups live and breathe the Patriots-Way where every teammate's strengths are fully utilized for the betterment of customers and company. 

5. Entrepreneurial Mindset
An entrepreneurial mindset is beneficial for working with startups and corporate innovation. By working with startups, you'll exhibit the 3 "H" personalities and qualities.

Personality-wise, you'll wear 3 hats as a hustler (moving the needle), hacker (finding alternative solutions to impossible problems), and hipster (communicating well with any target audience).

As a teammate, you'll learn how to express humility (win with dignity/lose gracefully), hunger (never complacent with the status quo), and hang-worthiness (can pass the airport test with colleagues).  

These personalities and qualities will help you succeed throughout your professional career.