This is a guest post for Startup Roots by Larry Chiang, our first guest speaker. 

Larry Chiang is an 

instructional humorist and has self-reported IQ of about 88. What he lacks in academic prowess, he more than makes up for in work fortitude and conference hustle. He is not yet a Jedi but has instincts stronger than Luke Skywalker when it comes to identifying rising entrepreneurial talent at a tech conference afterparty. Read this and make the force be with you too. After an HBS event, they wrote: What They Don’t Teach You at Stanford Business School. After a Stanford BASES keynote and SWIB panel, he allowed the audience to pose questions via text message.  He revealed “What They STILL Don’t Teach You at Stanford GSB About Public Speaking.”

by Larry Chiang

I love the topic of mentorship.

There is no better time to get mentored than when you're a college student. Even retards from Pepperoni Community College can get face to face time with a VC just by mentioning the words "college student" and 'internship' together in a sentence.

Here are 10 events that cost $50 for interns this summer to attend -- yes, that even includes 10 dinners. Using my over developed powers of long division, that comes out to a whopping $5 per. Here are the events: http://startuproots.eventbrite.com/

Here are three tips for getting the most out of Silicon Valley's best of the best minds listed here

-1- Pre-Read Before You Go

Interns need to know who they are listening to before they go. Remember, if you're least qualified, you better be most prepared. I am making that into my own theorem.

Do not let the FREE food, packed house and experts heaping on audience accolades fool you... If you want better results, read about who the effen keynote is. REMEMBER: Being better prepared makes you look better than not being prepared.

-2- Prep a Question

Every person who speaks has something published on their passion topic.

Leverage this.

For example, if Robert Scoble is presenting, know that he loves shiny new tech toys so ask him about stuff he likes. Another example is one of the VCs on my panel... VCs love money and squeezing founders for equity. I'd leverage this (pun intented) and ask them about their sexy exits (aka times they sold a company for big bucks) Let them brag about how smart they were in the 80s and 90s and they will love you long time. By the way, that phrase is trademarked Larry Chiang incorporated. Not to be re-used, reiterated, rebroadcast, retweeted without express written authorization of Larry Chi-ang incorporated (JK, you can steal anything I write- I don't copyright any of my stuff)

-3- Promote Your Employer

Lets say the company that gave you an internship is chock full of lazy, unprofessional founders that don't work and don't appreciate you... You promote that employer anyway.

For example, lets say you work for Dan Martell of Flowtown. You say, "So I am getting mentored this summer by Dan Martell, founder of Flowtown, and he recommends I learn Ruby but also biz dev. What are your thoughts of combining both tech and biz skills?"

I have a bunch more tips that I will give you for free if you come find me at these events. Sure I saved the best for last and if you effen can't wait, text message me your email: 650-283-8008, and I will send them

I wrote this in 30 minutes. If I missed something, email me… larry @larrychiang dot com and include your cell in the subject line.

DISCLOSURE: I kick a lot of butt. Text or call me during office hours 11:11am or 11:11pm PST +/-11 minutes on my cell: 650-283-8008.

Larry Chiang is the founder of Duck9 , which educates college students on how to establish and maintain a FICO score over 750. He is a frequent contributor to BusinessWeek. His earlier posts on GigaOm include: How to Work The Room ; 8 Tips On How to Get Mentored ; and 9 VCs You’re Gonna Want To Avoid . You can read more equally funny, but non-founder-focused-lessons on Larry’s Amazon blog .

As a college student, your summers are microcosms of post-college choice, a 3-month period where you can choose to do whatever you want, just like after you graduate. Some might spend it surfing on the shores of Santa Cruz while others might go home and help out the family. But most college students will choose to do something productive with that time, to plant seeds that become stepping stones to success in their post-college careers. 

The option set is across the board. Some students may choose to take summer courses to get ahead in their educational schedules. Others might choose to make some money, maybe becoming a barista on a minimum wage salary or a clerk at a local computer shop (Yes, I did that one summer). Others might choose to just hang out with friends and have fun. All of these are great, but we're here to tell you why having a summer internship at a startup rules them all:

1. Experience Follows You Forever - working at a startup, you'll undoubtedly work on substantial projects that contribute to the growth and direction of the product. Whether its product marketing or feature development, these are tangible experiences that you'll be able to speak to for the rest of your life. Many of the other summer options won't be able to provide this.
2. Experience Opens Doors - With that experience, when you move on to other jobs and into your full-time career, you'll be able to call on these experiences and the impact that you had on the company. Recruiters and other decision makers will see what you did as an asset that helps you stand out amongst your peers who may not have accomplished as much.
3. You Learn Real Skills for Success in Real Life - by working on products that people use and having a tangible impact, you'll quickly figure out what matters and what doesn't. This less in value and effort is not something that can be taught in class.
4. Making Money is Overrated - working at some startups may mean you have to get paid in pizza and ramen. While in the short term, making a bit of money at a minimum wage job is good, the experience you'll take with you in your future far outweigh the short term benefits, both from an economic and experiential perspective.
5. Summer Classes Don't Help in the Long Run - yeah, you might be able to reduce some of the credits you have to take but what you'll find that the skills you gain and what you learn from a summer with the smartest movers and shakers in the world will far surpass anything you might learn from a text book based summer course.
6. This is YOUR Future we're talking about - it's important to invest in experiences and use those experiences to craft the story of your journey and where you're going. Being at a startup over the summer is one of the best experiences you'll ever be able to take with you.

So what are you waiting for? Apply for a Startup Roots Fellowship!

We've heard the names and many of us secretly yearn for them on our resumes: Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, GE, Apple, Intel, Disney, etc. Summer internships at these household corporations can be very prestigious, serving as an added notch on the resume for the aspiring college student. And they are great - they provide first hand experience at some of the most successful companies in the world. That said, summer internships at the big corporation can be a hit or miss. In the best case you'll complete a project that has a substantial impact on a great product. But in the worse case, you might spend an entire summer making the three C's: coffee, copies, and calls.

Startups, on the other hand, are small shops with big dreams. Typically, they are a handful of really dedicate entrepreneurs who are working to make waves in history, people who are passionate about what they're building and are continually inspired by the people that surround them. Thus, spending a summer surrounded by these people can be life changing. There are hundreds of reasons why working at a startup is awesome, but I'll give you the top 5 here:

1. Your work will be valued: Resources in a startup are scarce, a few people doing a lot of work. These small companies are competing with major corporations who have tens of thousands of employees. You, as an added summer intern, are invaluable and will be used to do essential work to the success of the startup. 

2. Your work will make a big impact: In the early stages of a company and its product development, every project undertaken will inform and shift the product in a substantial way. As a summer intern, your projects will help a product gain market share, develop features or even change course. 

3. Your experience will be unparalleled: Working in a small , game changing startup, you'll likely have direct lines of communication to VPs, CEOs and even founders. You'll be working daily on something that is customer facing and changes that come from your work directly affect the product. The experience will be fast-paced as decisions and projects are executed every single day. These are not givens in the corporate experience.

4. You'll see how everything works: Each and every day you'll likely be sitting in voice range of product marketing, engineering, HR, finance, strategy, customer service, etc. You'll have the overhead view of how an entire company works and operates and likely, due to the needs of a startup, be able to interface or work with each of those groups. In the corporate atmosphere, very rarely do you get out of the specific business unit or team your placed in.

5. You're working with the future movers and shakers of the world: Entrepreneurs are people who have big dreams and drive to make them happen. They are the ones creating the new companies and projects that will change the world. These are the people you want to learn from.

Have you had a summer internship at a startup or corporation? How was your experience?

Stay tuned for more news from Startup Roots!