Disclaimer: I am by no means saying that college dropouts or students with poor grades are dumb -- I'm simply defending the hiring practices of Google and why their practices hold rational meaning to them.

There are so many little things about a prospective employee that can tell you, as the entrepreneur or hiring manager, whether or not the candidate is capable of being a reliable, long term, team player. For example, if I'm hiring a person, I'm going to look at how many schools this person went to and whether or not s/he graduated. I'm going to look at his/her smoking habits. I'm going to look at how long this person remained at his or her last few jobs. If I'm hiring manager for a company like Google, which receives thousands of resumes daily, I'll quickly eliminate people who didn't get a college degree, who smoke on a daily basis, and who weren't able to keep a job for more than two years because each show a lack of commitment and/or a preference for short term over long term goals. There are so many brilliant people who don’t have college degrees, but it takes much longer to screen these people for commitment. I don't think companies like Google care about what you learned in college so much as they care about your desire to stay with a company for more than a few months. They want employees who are able to work on projects that they aren't necessarily in love with.

Many people critique Google for looking at college transcripts, but I'm going to defend them on this for several reasons:

1) High GPAs show the ability to do everything (besides business/computer science), and this is often a good measure for what happens in the workplace. This isn't to say that dropouts are unable to prosper at a company like Google, but it's an easier way to weed out the definite slackers.

2) A transcript allows Google to see what kind of courses you took. Did you only take computer science classes? Did you stick with your Jazz Ensemble for all four years, or did you join in and out depending on the semester? Are there any independent studies? All of these gives clues as to who the person is and what their commitment to their studies are. Maybe you took a class in philosophy which you had absolutely no interest in whatsoever, but were you able to get at least a B?

3) I hate to say it, but looking at college transcripts is an easy way to weed people out. If you're running an amazing company, you'll get thousands upon thousands of transcripts, and you can't possibly take everyone. By weeding out college dropouts and those with poor grades, it's much easier to focus on those who are likely to succeed in a large company.

As Seth Godin often says on his blog that resumes give a reason for companies to reject you, which is exactly why Google asks for them in the first place. It makes the hiring process much better for them! For those of you who don't have a college degree or resume, find people to hire you based on something you did. Through keeping this blog, I've received many recruitment emails from technology companies. Although I'm yet to receive my college diploma, I'd feel reluctant to hire someone without a college diploma unless s/he has solid work experience to compensate. Even a college diploma is no longer enough to hire somebody. I'll take this even further to say, if I receive an offer to work for a company without an interview and review of my past experiences, I would feel reluctant to join because it shows something about how smart my colleagues in this company may be.

The moral of this story: If you think rationally about it, Google has a reason to recruit people in the way that they do. Fewer people leave the company not just because they offer amazing job benefits, but because they attract people who are more likely to stick it out and see the good in whatever they're working on. Most of the people I know at Yahoo are high school or college dropouts, and most of them are seriously contemplating leaving their job. While Yahoo is yet to better their job benefits, hiring committed people from the onset is often a significant part of the battle.

Jessica Mah is a 17 year old entrepreneur, blogger, and sophomore at early college, Bard College at Simon's Rock.

She loves chatting with fellow students, readers, and entrepreneurs, so don't hesitate to email her or message her on AIM! Feel free to subscribe to her blog or stalk her twitter.

Virgin founder/chairman Richard Branson and Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page just posted videos on the first manned adventure to Mars -- except they wish to inhabit the planet with colonists for years to come!

Cool idea? Check. Suspicious? Definitely. Here's what I found off the FAQ page:

oh, all right. Fine. April Fool's. Ha, ha, ha. It isn't real. There. Are you happy? Does it please you to drag us out of our lovely little fantasy world, to crush all our hopes and dreams? Is that really what you need to hear? Fine, you've heard it. Virgle isn't real.

Yet.

Sure, they posted this on April 1st. But for some reason, this project sounds just crazy enough for Richard Branson to endorse it.

Jessica Mah is a 17 year old entrepreneur, blogger, and sophomore at early collegeBard College at Simon's Rock.

She loves chatting with fellow students, readers, and entrepreneurs, so don't hesitate to email her or message her on AIM! Feel free to subscribe to her blog or stalk her twitter.

I've taken a look at many companies and called them lame, boring, or generic... only to find that years later, they've blown up to be the hottest companies on the block.

I didn't actually have the opportunity to invest into Google back in 1999 because I was only nine years old, but I've heard of so many people passing on the idea of either working for or investing into Google. Firstly, there's no possible way for people to completely know which companies are bound for success. Instead, it's much easier to tell which startups are destined for failure, mainly by looking at the management team.

I was reading a blog post by Ben McConell from Church of the Customer, and he was talking about the idea of predicting the outcome of something like the superbowl:

"It's impossible to know. Too many other variables are at play. It may be fun to talk about, but it's not very productive."

When I was asked to speak on the future of web at an upcoming conference, I immediately knew that I couldn't make a prediction about the future of web, let alone the future of a startup. Practically speaking, trying to predict the web is a philosophical sense seems to be unproductive, but knowing what WON'T happen in the future seems more worthwhile. (and much more entertaining!) You see this happen in all realms of business and life: as an investor, you decide which companies not to invest into. As an entrepreneur, you decide which ideas not to pursue. As an admissions officer at Harvard, you decide which students not to admit. As a student, you decide which classes not to take. The list goes on forever.

I have a friend who was classmates with Sergey and Larry back in the late 90's, and he heard about the opportunity to join the duo in a weird search indexing startup. Like most of his classmates, he took a pass. Many of you are probably thinking, "WHY WOULD YOU PASS ON SUCH AN AWESOME COMPANY?" Well, everybody has a startup! Everybody is doing their own thing, trying to attract other people. There was no way for the students to predict which startup was the one worth joining. Instead, they decide which ones not to join because it's a much easier task.

Bessemer Venture Partners, a well known venture capital firm, has a publicly displayed anti-portfolio. It lists all of the amazing companies that include the likes of eBay, Google, HP, and Apple that the venture firm decided NOT to invest in. This just comes to show that not even the best venture firms are always able to see future success.

Bessemer Venture Partners is perhaps the nation's oldest venture capital firm, carrying on an unbroken practice of venture capital investing that stretches back to 1911. This long and storied history has afforded our firm an unparalleled number of opportunities to completely screw up.

A venture firm that's able to showcase an anti-portfolio must be incredibly secure with itself. They get thousands of business plans per year and can only invest into a select few. If you don't get a pass, it doesn't mean failure. But if your team sucks (just as many of mine have in the past,) you're destined for failure before you even brainstorm your idea. Bessemer Venture Partners can't possibly look at each startup in heavy detail because it's unproductive. Just like college admission officers, they weed out the majority and focus on only the one's with most potential.

But bottom line? Success is unpredictable, but failure is much easier to spot. If you're in the position of making a choice, first focus on what not to choose.

Jessica Mah is a 17 year old entrepreneur, blogger, and sophomore in college. She's currently the founder of a startup, managing editor at Startupism.com, and Jessicamah.com.

Every wannabe entrepreneur must be doing a lot of travel! Here are a few pointers for what I use to play any trip I'm about to go on. Let's start with the what NOT to do list:

1) Don't fly on United. Their customer service is slow and frustrating. Their frequent flyer program is incredibly flawed.

2) Don't fly with connecting flights if you don't have to. Look at me, I'm stranded in Denver because I was silly enough to take a connecting flight. Kayak.com fixes this problem.

3) Don't travel to new places with friends or family. Half of the fun in going to a new place is meeting new people. Leaving your friends/family at home forces you to make due with the new environment. Some may call this culture shock, but I call it adventure. Deal with it! :p br>
Now with that said, here's a list of things I do before going to any new city:

1) How to fly? I usually use Kayak.com, because it compares the airfare for all airlines on multiple websites at the same time. Super user friendly, great for those bargain hunters, and comes highly recommended.

2) Where to stay? You have three options: 1) Make friends with people who'll let you sleep with them (not literally) 2) CouchSurfat some stranger's house or 3) Stay at a hotel recommended by TripAdvisor. I've only done #1 and #3.

7) How to get around? Print out some Google Maps of the areas you'll be hanging out in. Choose a limo driver to escort you to wherever. I usually use CitySearch for this.

8) What are you going to do? Touristy attractions are for tourists. You're a wannabe entrepreneur, I assume, so checkout upcoming.org and meetup.com for events and gatherings in the city you'll be in. I first used meetup.com to get myself acquainted with San Francisco. After going to two or three meetups, I had solid connections I could depend on. Before leaving ANY city, make it a goal to meet at least one awesome person who you plan on keeping in touch with.

Jessica Mah is a 17 year old entrepreneur, blogger, and sophomore in college. She's currently the founder of a startup, managing editor at Startupism.com, and Jessicamah.com. In her free time, she enjoys the prospect of being an underage angel investor while partying like a rock star.

First off, I'd like to thank my sponsors for supporting me and my blog through tough times. Except not really.

Many of you have heard the news: Robert Scoble is finally putting blogs on his website! And of course, this means that many people are criticizing him for taking back his previous opinion on putting ads on blogs. In a nutshell, the two of us held the same opinion: That advertisements on blogs don't make enough money to be worthwhile. Only that his opinion has changed, and I'm not sure if mine has too. I look up to the guy and I think about every word he says.

Think about it: I'm a poor college student paying over $45K a year to go to school per year while blogging during my lunch breaks. If I put up some sponsorships on my website, maybe I could afford some new gadgets and pay off those (non-existent) financial aid loans!

Yet again, I could live without a new MacBook Air. So for now, unless any of you guys insist, I'll keep my blog ad-free. :)

Jessica Mah is a 17 year old entrepreneur, blogger, and sophomore in college. She's currently the founder of a startup, managing editor at Startupism.com, and Jessicamah.com. In her free time, she enjoys the prospect of being an underage angel investor while partying like a rock star.

Interacting with people and building relationships makes me tick. Running a company requires great communication skills and requires that the partners are able to make amazing connections with people they need to meet. I've found myself meeting shy tech engineers at random events, and those are the ones very likely to fail. On the other hand, I've met so many non-geeky San Francisco engineers who need to get out of the office and socialize. Who said nerd stereotypes had to be true?

Brings me to my next point... I was looking for a technical co-founder for my company, and I met some really nerdy guys in the process. They might have been amazing coders, but their lame personalities drove me insane. I finally found this guy, Alex. He's probably reading this blog post, but whatever: On our first meeting, I could tell that we'd click. He was by no means a stereotypical nerd. If the guy enjoys going out and having fun sometimes, he meets my social criteria for a co-founder.

All of the co-founders represent the company, and when it comes time to making business deals and raising venture capital, it really helps to be sociable. I can't see anything more embarrassing than having to bring my super nerdy, boring, shy co-founder to a lunch with the people who can make and break our company.

Fact is, you'll be spending a good part of your work life and possibly personal life with this co-founder. It's a marriage, and once you propose and s/he agrees, you're committed until the very end. How it ends depends heavily on the relationship. The end may be an acquisition by Google for a bagillion dollars or just a divorce that was inevitable.

So what should I say to the geeks who are reading this? Hmm... get yourself a copy of How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.

Jessica Mah is a 17 year old entrepreneur, blogger, and sophomore in college. She's currently the founder of a startup, managing editor at Startupism.com, and Jessicamah.com. In her free time, she enjoys the prospect of being an underage angel investor.

A friend of mine and fellow JessicaMah.com reader sent me a question the other day - he and pretty much most adults I sit down for coffee with always come to asking me about my post college plans. What do I plan on doing once I'm out of college? Of course, I answer by saying that I'd like to continue being an entrepreneur. Well, I'm sort of doing it already and I know it's what drives me.

Then there's the question of what I plan to do after Google acquires my company for a bagillion dollars? Well, even now... I don't need to work if I didn't want to. I could just sit on my ass all day and not care about the world, but why would I want to do that? I'm an entrepreneur, and for me, it's about the drive. There's just an amazing feeling that goes along with seeing nothing turn into something. Seeing a company exit achieves a few tiny things for me:

1) It proves to my peers, my partners, and my parents that I'm capable of doing business. (aka, doing something meaningful with my life)

2) It satisfies my over enlarged ego.

3) My children will have trust funds waiting for them. (no, I don't believe in that stuff. Let those kids earn their keep)

And once I have all of the above satisfied, I'll probably want more. It's just human nature for me at least to have a goal in mind. If I don't have a goal and a reach goal to reach, there's no point in living. There's so much personal variation to this. For many, multi million dollar exits may lead an entrepreneur to taking time off and just relaxing on the beach. There's absolutely no problem with that. Unlike others, I don't think that type of mentality makes someone a *fake* entrepreneur. They simply have different life goals, and what suits them should be accepted.

Jessica Mah is a 17 year old entrepreneur, blogger, and sophomore in college. She's currently the founder of a startup, managing editor at Startupism.com, and Jessicamah.com. In her free time, she enjoys the prospect of being an underage angel investor.