Ask HN: How good do I need to be to work at a startup?

Posted by anastasiaess on Tuesday December 30, 2025 @04:11PM
from the ask-hn dept.

I want to work at a startup, but I don't know how to stand out. Any advice? I'm a senior atm but if I could I'd drive down to SF tomorrow to start work...

I build a lot and love it but some of these applications say things like "what are you the top 1% at?". I don't go to a target school and have no idea how to market myself. My skills / interest are in vision + interactivity AI applications. For ex: building a full stack local llm app to control a 3D blender scene, getting NVIDIA's research libraries to run headlessly (drone -> 3d selfie), and I've been babysitting extra hrs to save up for AR glasses to do spatial hacking with.

( 3 comments | on HN )

Re:Ask HN: How good do I need to be to work at a startup? by toomuchtodo on Tuesday December 30, 2025 @04:14PM (#46438072)

Interview until hired, that’s the bar. Every org and hiring manager are different.

https://news.ycombinator.com/jobs

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: How good do I need to be to work at a startup? by anastasiaess on Tuesday December 30, 2025 @04:54PM (#46438469)

Thank you! Tbh I probably just need to put out more applications to get the interviews in the first place

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: How good do I need to be to work at a startup? by tim-tday on Wednesday December 31, 2025 @11:48AM (#46445794)

You don’t need tech skill upgrades. You need to connect with people building something you’re interested in. The closer that alignment the better it will work out.

The skills I’ve seen thrive at a startup: emotional intelligence, stamina, high frustration threshold, clarity of thought under pressure

There are tons of programs to connect technical people to startups. Start getting plugged into those.

[ Parent | on HN ]