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Comment by pdenya | Hacker News Reader

> The problem with having no skills or track record is that it's not worth paying you

Required experience for paid work is a fact of life. If you don't have the skills to work for pay in a certain area you work for free. You can do that by putting in the time on your own side projects or you can accomplish it some other way. Like doing free work in exchange for experience.

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That's not for free. Doing work for free means "I will do this for you and get nothing in return." All I'm saying is don't run around willy-nilly doing work for free, thinking that will somehow magically lead to success; be cognizant of what you will actually get in return. And I'm not saying that money is the only type of payment, not at all.

Frankly, I think you are deliberately misinterpreting the spirit of the suggestion. Your interpretation reduces the original point to absurdity: "do something for no reward."

I'm not in the startup scene at all and if I were, I wouldn't expect that working for free would magically lead to success, but why is a bad idea to work strictly for experience - assuming you have some idea of what "good" experience would be? What's an example of the non-monetary payment you have in mind?

Wages are only part (I've heard 50% before) of the cost of hiring. There are other expenses like training, desk space, insurance, etc. So I can't imagine that it'd be much easier getting an unpaid position as a paid one. At the very least there'd have to be some expectation that you'd offer a return on any training you receive. If you've got the potential, they'd probably just pay you. There's nothing stopping them from employing casually or on a short term contract to alleviate risk. Taking people on for free might even violate labour laws in some jurisdictions.

Volunteering for a not-for-profit is a different matter of course.

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