Ask HN: What should a student who is already decent at SWE do over the summer?
I've already ruled out internships at most tech companies b/c
1. I spent a gap year working at a wide range of companies (big company, startup, research lab)
2. I'm a reasonably good programmer with open-source projects and while I'm quite sure I have a lot lot more to learn, I don't think a tech internship is the highest-leverage use of my time
3. (most important reason) I'm not sure I want to be a SWE. I love software engineering / programming, but when I think of the way to make the most impact in the world it's probably creating a (actually meaningful) startup/organization. (I know, I know, every young person says this these days)
Given that this is the case, I'm trying to figure out what to do this summer besides a normal tech internship. I was contemplating how to figure out what to do and decided on a "meta-strategy" of consulting people with more experience on forums such as HN.
Here are the options I've come up with so far:
1. Try to understand virality -- I'm not particularly good at creating viral content or content that appeals to the masses (aside from the natural edge that comes from being young), which could certainly be useful when marketing a product. An option here is trying to intern at a company like Buzzfeed which is full of people who understand emotions / virality.
2. Try to understand soft skills / business -- There are roles out there like "business development intern". I don't know anything about "business development" but negotiating with other companies / writing white-papers / etc. could be a useful skill
3. Spend time learning on my own. To enact change these days, it's probably not sufficient to just know programming (unless you want to do a SASS). Spending time on my own learning physics/chemistry/biology could be useful. The issue here is I believe mentorship is useful and this option negates that completely.
4. Working on my own business (not a software project). I've done this in the past & learned a lot about how to be scrappy. Not a terrible idea, but I don't want to sink 3 months into something only to have to return to school. Also negates mentorship. Also I'd rather spend time learning right now so I can execute on something that's not a local maximum of what my brain can imagine right now.