Amazing how many people are tooting their own horns in here. IMO, if you are one, you don't claim it, people know by looking at your work. But anyway...
This has been my problem breaking into the industry. A few years ago I didn't understand a lick of HTML/CSS and changed that by digging in and learning it. Now I can build WP themes from scratch (not the most semantic, but I can still do it), and write functions/code in PHP. Now I'm working on js and jQuery, while also trying to learn the rest of the LAMP stack.
Still, it seems like every time I teach myself something new, a new skill is added to the startup rockstar job requirement list. I get that startups want to fill big holes, and that many pay accordingly, but this is why so many junior level people decide to build their own companies instead of asking permission to learn a little on the job.
> IMO, if you are one, you don't claim it, people know by looking at your work. But anyway...
Except this is a discussion in text. Sure, yes, walking and talking are two different things, but how else are you going to know what point of view someone is speaking form unless then tell you in their comment? No reason to assume people are just tooting their own horns for 'hn-cred'. Does your comment mean so little you'd ruin it by belittling people?
As for the rest of your comment: to be fair, from the sounds of things, your still very much new to all of this. You are a junior developer, and that's nothing to be ashamed of. The problem is you are looking at these startup rockstar job requirements and deciding for them. That doesn't mean you are ready, but you shouldn't be the one to decide that. After all, good companies are always looking for good people. And while that position they have posted might not be right for you, they might have another place for you.
> this is why so many junior level people decide to build their own companies
Maybe. I don't know, personally. That being said, though, is that starting your own company requires another "rockstar" requirement list all it's own. Don't fool yourself.
If you're put off by "startup rockstar job requirements," starting a company won't be any easier.
All I'm saying is that the proof is in the pudding, and I find it odd that 25% of the people that had posted upon first read felt they could claim this status. I believe it can be achieved, but the numbers seem very skewed here.
Anyway, I'm not ashamed of it at all. I went through a job search and had a lot of bad luck. I'm not actually expecting to be given a rockstar job, but even the local small-time shops have the same requirements. Every single company I've seen is looking for the mysterious rockstar unicorn programmer.
So, after eventually finding a job, I decided to build a bunch of projects on the side, and we're getting a lot of traction. If I were to claim rockstar status at anything, it would be persistence. I guess you probably didn't look at my bio.
This has been my problem breaking into the industry. A few years ago I didn't understand a lick of HTML/CSS and changed that by digging in and learning it. Now I can build WP themes from scratch (not the most semantic, but I can still do it), and write functions/code in PHP. Now I'm working on js and jQuery, while also trying to learn the rest of the LAMP stack.
Still, it seems like every time I teach myself something new, a new skill is added to the startup rockstar job requirement list. I get that startups want to fill big holes, and that many pay accordingly, but this is why so many junior level people decide to build their own companies instead of asking permission to learn a little on the job.