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Tech Jobs For a Student?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the live-and-learn dept.

Nick Manley writes "I turned 17 back in August and have been fascinated with technology my entire life. I have a special interest in software and computer programming. I am really hoping to find a job, or at least an internship, where I can learn more about my field and expand my knowledge of software development. Does anyone have recommendations for someone like myself, without any college education, for ways to get a head start on my career? Preferably, one that doesn't include selling iPods to kids at Best Buy."

12 of 399 comments (clear)

  1. Incorrect Title by Quobobo · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ...Shouldn't this be "Tech Jobs for a Non-student"?

  2. College research projects! by Czyl · · Score: 3, Informative

    Have you considered contacting professors at your local university? Plenty of research groups can use someone with coding skills, and you'll have a great experience. It might not be paid, but you're likely to find someone who'll take you and you'll be able to pick up letters of recommendation for future work.

    You might also get to learn something about actual computer science (rather than simply programming or IT), and better yet, you might get to contribute to the development of cutting-edge technology.

    As a warning, you may have to knock on a lot of doors before you find someone who thinks a high school student knows enough to contribute usefully to a project (many academics might just ask you to read a stack of books and come back in a few years), but there are those of us willing to take on a high school intern -- you'll just have to be persistent.

    1. Re:College research projects! by juushin · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I am a professor at a large highly ranked national university and I hire students that can code (high school or whatever). I have tons of projects I would like to work on that require programming (typically in Matlab but also in other programs), I don't have time to do it all myself, and I am in a department in the life sciences where we don't necessarily get students who can program. I agree with Czyl. Contact a professor at a local college/university and I think that you will find an opportunity. Make sure you come across as being motivated, smart, and dependable.

  3. My advice? by drdanny_orig · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Go to college, take neat classes, be well rounded. Learn to read, learn to think, learn to write (English first, then C++/Python/Java, what-have you). All of that, plus enjoying these next few years of life is way way more important than an internship or being some Google-head's code slave for a summer. Plenty of time for work after you've had some fun. And yes, I'm completely serious about this.

    --
    .nosig
  4. Don't overcommit by Harmonious+Botch · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You're seventeen? That's way too you to commit yourself to a career. ( Not meaning to imply that you're stupid or have poor judgement, just that you haven't had time to see a lot of the world and the different ways that it can be viewed ) If programming interests you, do it for fun.

    Speaking as an employer, technical skills - beyond a bare minimum - are seldom the most important thing that you can bring to a job interview. Being articulate both verbal and written - helps a lot. Having a history of jobs ( even flipping burgers ) in which your former boss will give you a good recommendation - showed up on time, cooperated with fellow employees, didn't steal, didn't drink or toke on the job, etc - really may be the most important thing.

    You're only seventeen and the world is your oyster. Don't commit too early. Try several jobs, try several majors, travel a bit; find out more about the world. Then choose.

  5. Re:Are you buying? by daeg · · Score: 2, Insightful

    That's a load of crap. Unless the kid has made terrible financial decisions already (like taking out fraudulent credit cards), you can still get loans that are in a grace period until you are out of school. Sure, they are higher interest than subsidized loans, but most state schools are cheap for in-state residents. It's no Harvard or MIT, but it's better than nothing.

    At 17, go get a job. Any job. Your primary focus should be school and extracurricular things. Enjoy high school while you still can -- senior year is your best year. Go to the football games. Help the cheerleaders in their volunteer car wash. Smear Vaseline all over the car doorhandles in the junior parking lot. Go get laid.

    Unless you are some sort of technical genius, no one will care what jobs you had pre-college. At best it is something to joke with during an interview (college interview or a job interview). Everyone has their horrible first job stories to tell.

    When you get into school, you can probably get a job supervising a campus computer lab. Maybe working on the school website or helping out the newspaper (there is a lot of technical behind-the-scenes to a paper). If your campus has mass media degrees, they likely have a radio/news channel, too, which is more technical experience. Second and third year you can probably tutor. The last year or two you can look for internships. They may or may not be directly related. I got a job working for a large insurance company doing technical writing at $23.50/hour -- not bad for a college kid.

  6. At 17, concentrate on college by DrDitto · · Score: 2

    Concentrate on getting into college and earning money if needed. Absolutely continue to dabble in programming...teach yourself Java, Python, C++, or whatever floats your boat, but only in your free time. Until you are accepted into a college that satisfies your goals, don't put a lot of time into anything that doesn't help this effort.

    Do not be tempted to bypass college. It would be a huge mistake.

    Contrary to what many people believe, a college education is not meant to teach you practical job skills. It is meant to educate you about life. It is a way for employers to weed people out and to put yourself in a better pool. If you don't have a B.S., 9/10 places will throw away your resume.

    1. Re:At 17, concentrate on college by TheRaven64 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'm speaking as a 16-year old currently in community college and seriously considering not continuing on to a four-year.

      Of course it's your decision, but I would strongly recommend against skipping university.

      I know it's insanely arrogant of me to think this way, but my opinion is, if 9 out of 10 places will throw my resume away because it doesn't have a line of text on it, I wouldn't want to work for those 9.

      That's fine. I probably wouldn't either. But what if you're applying to the 10th one, and someone else with a degree also applies? Which of you is more likely to get the job?

      if I spend the next 6 years learning to code - which I actually consider fun - instead of living in a place I'll hate taking classes I hate and leeching my parent's retirement fund, I think I could get to a point where I can stand on something other than a piece of paper

      If you go to university to learn to code, you are going to waste your time. I first started programming aged 7 and when I got to university I was already pretty fluent in three or four programming languages (these days I've lost count, and I tend to pick up new ones fairly frequently). Programming is a really, really small part of a computer science degree, however. What you learn will still help you, however. Some useful things I learned, which I probably would not have learned studying on my own:

      • Exactly how a compiler translates the code I write into machine code (and what it will generate), which is essential for writing really optimised code.
      • How to analyse the complexity of an algorithm to determine its worst-case performance.
      • When to disregard that assessment, because I know that the algorithm will get much better performance on the data I'm feeding it.
      • A whole bunch of game theory and graph theory that I draw on when designing algorithms and data structures.
      • Exactly what an OS is doing when I make a system call, and how to make use of this efficiently (and how to change it when it's not doing what I want).

      And I got the piece of paper. The thing about that piece of paper is not that it says I can write code (it doesn't), it says I can stick at something for three years, and it says that I have the ability to learn everything required to get a degree in three years.

      When I was your age (I'm now 24, by the way, and about to finish a PhD), I really hated it when people began sentences 'when I was your age.' I also wanted to be a programmer (actually, at 16 I was torn between programmer and IP lawyer, but that's another story). Now, I do write code (and do a bit of consulting), but primarily I'm a tech writer / journalist. Having a degree makes it a lot easier to switch fields, because it shows your first employer in your new area that you have the ability to learn something new. You may still want to be a programmer in 10 years time, but if you don't (or if there aren't any programming jobs around then), it helps to have a diverse skill set and evidence to back it up.

      College is not about the paper, it's about learning about life.

      University is what you make it. In the UK, we have four classes of degrees; first class (first), upper second class(2.1), lower second class (2.2), and third class (third). The advice I was given, which I still consider good, was to make sure I didn't get a 2.2. Either do well academically, and get a first or a 2.1, or do something really interesting with your time there (direct plays, or whatever) and get a third, but avoid getting a 2.2 and not having anything else to show for your time there. If a university has a good computer society, this may well help you in several ways. For me, administrating the society's network taught me a lot about Linux. For others, meeting older members who are now working for companies like Red Hat got them their first job.

      Whatever happens, you are likely to meet a lot of interesting and clever people at a university, and encounte

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    2. Re:At 17, concentrate on college by ameoba · · Score: 2, Informative

      If you're in HS and taking classes at the CC, you'd probably speed through college in 3yr, if you don't get sidetracked. You'll enjoy yourself a lot more spending 4-5hr/day on courses and coursework and then doing what you want than you will working 8hr/day in some demoralizing, unrewarding, shitty job and then trying to gather the energy to learn on your own when you get home.

      One thing you're overlooking is that the just being a college student opens you up to a world of opportunities - there's tons of student jobs on campus for talented, motivated students that don't expect much (if any) experience. Being a student actually makes it possible to get internships. It gets you exposed to recruiters - many larger companies have employment programs exclusively for new grads. At the end of school, if you've done it right, you not only have your 'piece of paper', you've also got some actual, relevant, job experience. ...and you can't really make decisions about going off to a 4-yr school based on your opinions of community college. As Adam Carolla is fond of saying, community college is like "highschool with ashtrays". Move out of your parents' house, and go to school at least an hour or two's drive from home. It might help you lose that "fuck the man, I don't want to play his game and get certifications/degrees" attitude (which is going to hurt your chances at getting a career at least as much as actually lacking the degree.)

      --
      my sig's at the bottom of the page.
  7. Re:First by crazygamer · · Score: 2, Informative
    No company is going to have you writing code with no experience/education
    You shouldn't say that without any first-hand experience. I'm 17, got hired at 16 as a Javascript and PHP programmer and get a 1099 at the end of every year. Working for a company now, and had a contract with a different company before.

    To the author: I suggest you browse craigslist for people needing you to write a small bit of code for a small price. Then just deliver the product and get your money, and they won't know your age. As long as you act professionally and know what you're doing, I think someone out there will be willing to hire you just like someone hired me. Let me know if you need me to elaborate on something. Good luck!
  8. What to do? read, Read, READ! by chris_sawtell · · Score: 3, Informative
    Go the college route only IF you can afford it, and IF the college has a well developed and staffed CS/IT department. If it hasn't then you are just throwing away your money, which would be much better spent on a decent library of text-books. Assuming you decide to teach yourself then you'll need to learn a language or three. I'd suggest you learn what the OO paradigm is all about. These languages are pretty good implementations of it:- Get your head around that lot, toss in a sprinkling of accountancy, and you will be a very valuable item, but don't forget to have a bit of fun on the side.
  9. I hired a 16 year old by purplejacket · · Score: 2, Interesting

    When I was a founder of a startup back in 1999 I had the opportunity to hire a 16 year old as an intern. (We also hired a 17 year old). Being a startup company in silicon valley we tried to get the most for our money, and these two certainly provided. I was able to lay out a very clear project description that was not too large, nor too small, along with a lot of strategy for implementation. The guy coded it up quite nicely, though I found myself lecturing him about coding style. Note that now he works at google and codes rings around me. We found out about him simply because his father knew a guy in our company. When I interviewed the kid he showed a 3D visualization program he'd written in C++. I checked out the code and it looked good enough. I had been a high school teacher (briefly) and could tell he was smart, and thought he'd be trainable, so we went for it. It was amazing what a good decision that turned out to be.

    Interestingly, having been a teacher, I have very mixed feelings about education. I don't have a lot of faith in the educational system. See for instance "An Underground History of American Education" by John Taylor Gatto http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/ for a critique. In regards to college, my advice is: if you want to go and you know what to focus on, then go. If you're not sure, or you'd like to take some time off to do something else for a while, then that is a much better choice. That's the route my daughter (now 21) took, and I think it served her as she is able to treat study more like a job, and less like high school with ashtrays.

    And as to the military (as another poster mentioned): recruiters will tell you anything to lure you in and then you're a slave to the system--you have to do whatever they tell you to, and it's not usually what you want to do. Don't go over to the dark side; you'll do much better in civilian life.