GT Entrepreneurs Society - Don't get a job. Make one.

01/29/13 22:29:00    

By Michael Mealling

I spent the evening at the Georgia Tech Entrepreneurs Society meeting at Hypepotamus. The topic of discussion was how to educate students about entrepreneurship being a valid career choice: “Don't get a job. Make one.”

At Monday's S* Open Breakfast meeting the topic turned to figuring out how to expose every student to entrepreneurship in some form. The idea in both cases is that the economy of the future is not going to be friendly to those who can't make their own opportunities. Even if you do leave school and end up deeply embedded in Bain's 5000 strong workforce, global economics and the accelerating rate of technological change means there is a really good chance your job will be disrupted out from underneath you. Being exposed to entrepreneurship in college will give you the mental scaffolding to create your own opportunities where others will see none. The SOB crowd on Monday coined the term “career drownproofing”.

The GTES group is helping by creating as non-threatening a space as possible where students can come and talk to and work on business ideas. The Georgia Tech Startup Exchange is on the first floor of the library and is open to all. If you are at Tech then please encourage students even remotely interested in learning what a startup is to stop by.

One interesting bit was why the Startup Exchange was created when Hypepotamus was just down the street. Apparently students from last year's Startup Semester even found Hypepotamus to be intimidating. Something any co-working space needs to think about.