Andy Su

I had a really hard time figuring this out. I still probably don’t have it down completely.

First, what is programming?

People talk about programming as languages and they are literally correct. Learning programming is just like learning a language. You don’t know how to say something? Fine, write it down in English or whatever language you know and search for ways to express what you want to do. If your still screwing up, then you just have crappy grammar. It’s not like the SATs or anything, just fix your mistakes and you’ll get a 2400.

What requirements are there?

You don’t need to be a genius or anything. Always remember to look things up when you need it and life will go on. NEVER try code stuff without searching for a better solution first. Chances are, the function you’re looking for is already defined. If you think the function should be defined then it is defined.

How to start:

Most people and schools start with Java or C++ or Scheme. Sure, people can plow through manuals and learn Java or C++, in a couple of months. The thing with these languages is that they are very powerful but more useful for hardcore programmers. I believe that it would be better to learn a web development language such as Php first. It is simple, it can get you a job in lots of places, and you can use it to actually make something useful - namely a website.

Internshipin is the latest company that I’ve worked on. It got started quite fast and I learned a lot from it. Here’s practically how it started.

Two weeks after moving into Berkeley, I met Jessica Mah. After finishing our discrete mathematics howework that day, we started talking about making a company. Pretty soon, we drew out an outline for internshipin and got started.

Within a week, we had a rough search and employer posting page ready. We then rented a $160 server from Softlayer and pumped out more of the code. With midterms and homework bogging us down, we took a month to make the first beta and released it to employers.

The main thing is publicity. We had like 6 postings signed up and 1 paying internship. It wasn’t until the techcrunch post that we actually had people on our site. The moral here - know lots of people like Jessica and if you can get them to write a post about your site, great things will happen.