Which would you prefer a candidate have on their resume?

For reference I already have two F500 finance internships and intend to have another one next summer, I'm presently a sophomore.

I've had an idea I find intriguing for a startup that I've been kicking around with some friends for a few months and over the past few days have been thinking about working on getting a team together in order to create it, a majority of startups don't go anywhere so before doing this I wanted to seek some guidance from the WSO userbase. Would it look more impressive to have a Founder/CEO of a failed startup or an academic year PT intern at a bank/financial services office?

Please do not rip me for being cynical for posting the worst case result of the startup, in actuality I'm not pessimistic at all and infact love the concept (I mean, after all it's my idea) however I want to get a true assessment of the opportunity cost of launching it if in case it doesn't work out.

4 Comments
 

If the startup is that great why would you not want to run with it? Adverse selection right off the bat. Unless your idea actually might have had some chance of succeeding after asking you about what you actually did, which is unlikely.

 
shortvolwhynot

If the startup is that great why would you not want to run with it? Adverse selection right off the bat. Unless your idea actually might have had some chance of succeeding after asking you about what you actually did, which is unlikely.

A statistic that sticks in my mind is that 1 in 500 "startups" actually accomplish anything and almost any startup you hear of has a great concept. I am obsessively dedicated in everything I do and more than plan on pulling 5x my weight however things, especially startups, don't always workout and I would much rather understand the true opportunity cost in the worst case than regret it later.

 

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