He had spent a month on LinkedIn looking for a part-time proptech internship in New York and got nowhere. Then a family contact introduced him to someone at a startup he actually wanted to work for.
The call went well. The contact asked for sample work; he sent it; the feedback was positive. The contact forwarded him to the founder, who had final say.
The founder was busy. He rescheduled nearly three times. In the emails he sounded interested — who wouldn’t want free labour from someone hungry to work? He apologised for the delays and said he looked forward to the conversation.
When the Zoom finally happened, the founder spent the whole meeting looking down at his keyboard, clearly working on something else. It did not feel like an interview. It felt like being called to the principal’s office. After hearing what the candidate was looking for, he looked around the room and delivered the verdict: the startup did not currently have the resources to have an intern.
So he printed a flyer, put it in an envelope, and went around the city dropping it off at startups in person. The first building let him up. He handed the envelope to a woman at reception and walked out. He had never done anything like it, and wrote that he had never felt more alive. Another startup emailed back the same day: not hiring for part-time or internship roles.
Still in New York, still looking.