Tech Jobs For a Student? 399
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."
Incorrect Title (Score:3, Interesting)
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My advice is to look for a tech job on-campus. Most companies won't touch you unless you have the right piece of paper, but once you do, experience helps. Also, prepare to be frustrated as hell; I certainly was.
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take a look at open source projects (Score:2)
College research projects! (Score:3, Informative)
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.
Re:College research projects! (Score:4, Insightful)
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If you find that there are a lot of people interested in you, don't be afraid to be picky. OTOH, if you d
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That is possibly the funniest passage I've ever seen here.
My advice? (Score:5, Insightful)
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I had fun in school, but I often look back and regret not h
Internships (Score:2)
However, internships and other summer jobs are the best networking opportunities that exist. They will help you get job when college is done. Please don't write them off. If you intern wisely (on your summers off), with the right people, you can walk right out of college into a nice job or have a resume that has an excellent combination of experience and education (and quite possibly earn a fair amount of money).
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Start early. See if your high school offers programs for high-school students to take post-secondary courses (in Minnesota we call it PSEO - Post Secondary Enrollment Option). You get to take college credit for free. You should be able to get a couple classes in for the second semester.
When you actually go to college, visit your advisor and meet with professors, frequently. While the advisor could be worthless (mine were) there are some exceptions. Ther
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From my experience in the great down under, web development work is probably the only (decent) computer work with public advertisments for part-time placements. Everything else is very formal, very full-time, very BSc/BE/equiv. exp.
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But I want a code slave. How can I be an evil overlord if I don't have minions? :-)
Seriously, Google does have an internship program, but I haven't heard of us or any other big companies in the valley accepting high school students as interns. A company I worked for several jobs ago did have one employee who had just a high school diploma and was taking classes at a local college. He was very good, but I don't know if they would have hired him if he h
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Companies want developers who understand something more than PHP. If you can think in their problem domain you're a dozen times more valuable than the average I-only-know-code computer geek.
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I'm joking, but there's a grain of truth in it. When I started working, we started with a group (12 graduates). Several complained to me how the work cost them so much time. One even said it in front of the managers. I think this is childi
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I couldn't disagree with you more. As a recent graduate who had difficulty finding a job, I can tell you that
just like becoming a writer (Score:2)
Write Something.
Download Ruby, download eclipse, download visual studio express- they're all free. Play. Pick your favorite. Buy a few books. Spend some time each day doing it, pick the part that interests you, and do more of it.
When you've got some experience, volunteer for an open source project and keep learning- or find a job that offers training, and go to town. There's a million ways to do it...
but you have to start with step 1:
Write Something.
Internships are good (Score:2)
getting a foot in the door (Score:2)
Consider the situation from your potential employers perspective: how do they know whether you're any good? There are lots of people out there who think they are great programmers, but can't actually program their way out of a wet paper bag.
Networking/nepotism is the best way to overcome th
A few things (Score:2)
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Don't overcommit (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
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Build up your resume with your own projects (Score:2)
Once you have a resume worth looking at then you can go to software companies looking for a job.
It's hard to convince a company that "I l
Patience (Score:2)
Been there (Score:2)
Second, get involved in Free Software (Open Source). I became a core developer of GnomeICU (the Gnome ICQ client) when I was 17 and ICQ was still synonymous with IM. It got me into the Gnome community, I'm still reaping the benefits.
Third, when I was 17, it was the peak of the
Summer of Code (Score:2)
You get a paycheck with the Summer of Code. Whether you get paid depends on if you make sufficient progress in accordance with deadlines and to the satisfaction of the spons
Contact your local Microsoft partners (Score:2)
We are all listed here: http://directory.microsoft.com/ [microsoft.com]
I can assure you that a lot of us have a ton of interesting projects that need a lot of research and we don't have the time to do it. You'll probably be interested in working with ISVs.
Already been answered (Score:2)
state departments (Score:2)
It's happened for me and a friend of mine. It may not work the same everywhere, I'm in
Air Force Perhaps? (Score:2)
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Also, most employers these days like military veterans, and will be loath to turn them down for employment if you
Surviving Basic (Score:2)
About the only drawback is that you'll have to survive basic training.
From what I've been reading, the "kinder, gentler" Basic Training has been becoming even kinder and gentler of late. Air Force Basic Training has never been known as a real ass-kicker anyway.
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If (Score:2)
Then you have to deal with being viewed with suspicion in some circles. I would certainly doubt the moral fiber of someone who enlisted at this point in history.
At 17, concentrate on college (Score:3)
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.
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I disagree. Looking for a job in technical field, coming out of college with no practical job skills is going to ensure that you do not get the best jobs out there. Most new-grad interviews in the technical field concentrate on questions that try to figure out how well the candidate understands the basic concepts. It doesn't matter how well you are educated about
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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
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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 st
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Others have said you'll change. I agree, but I also see clear evidence that you have thought things through far more than a typical 16-year-old. You are entirely correct that the pieces of paper one gets from a university don't count so much in the long run, and if you are already well-adjusted you won't benefit much from the "roundedness" of the 4-year program.
Let me outline MY 4-year experience. I started univer
the best thing you could do.. (Score:2)
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couldnt really follow some code because of this line: while (*dst++ = *src++)
I don't think I'd fault someone because of that; it's very bad code. Any sane person would use a member of the strcpy family for this (and then get the benefit of someone else having optimised the copy operation). Since this code contains a potential overrun, you need to either validate src carefully or use strncpy (if you are writing portable code) or strlcpy (if you can get away with only running on platforms with a decent
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Indeed, although to be fair every person I interview has C/C++ on their resume, so I expect a basic understanding of such basic nuances; however overall I consider these to be generic CS questions expressed in C.
and most computer science programs don't involve enough programming for people to run across the difference between those two - many will know it, but because they've learne
My first tech gig... (Score:2)
Look around campus (Score:2)
I know one CS major who will have grad school offering all sorts of assistantships because he's gotten into coding applications for foreign language systems.
You can also watch the local *nix Users Group lists for job offers to stud
Check out local ISPs (Score:2)
The college professor route would also work but you might end up learning some interesting skills that only apply in that context that are fairly useless otherwise. Like some spe
Job for Cash, Code for Pleasure (Score:2)
Find an int
Networking is key (Score:2)
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Why not go for Manlix. It would go down a treat (pun intended) with the female and male gay crowd... get your manlix today. Eww.
Look hard (Score:2)
My advice is to look hard in
Depends on where you live... (Score:2)
When I was about your age I wrote an animation program in assembly on my Amiga 500 an
Helpdesk (Score:2)
Learning about software development. (Score:2)
Personally when hiring for a developer position, normally there are so many applicants that we throw out all the no (4 year) degree resumes or non related degrees (a degree in history doesn't help). That is simply a numbers game, we receive 200 resumes per day that a given position is advertised (online only at a single job
smaller technology firms (Score:2)
I looked for work for 6 months, applying for upto 6-10 jobs a fortnight. I didn't get a job, so i went back to uni. Only a month after finishing my computer science course i was well on my way to obtaining my current job as Software Engineer with BAE S
Portfolio, portfolio and portfolio (Score:2)
The question you've got to answer is why a manager would first want an intern rather than an employee (OK, the unpaid bit is nice), why they would choose a seventeen year old (when they could have a more qualified student who likely needs less supervision and gets more done) and why they'd choose you out of all the other seventeen year olds out there?
The easiest way is to ha
Why sales is important (Score:2)
Yeah, it's important that you know your stuff, that you know how to write decent code, and that you continually strive to impr
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However, you have to make the choice between being a seller (which means lying to customers - no salesman ever tells the truth), and being a person who does something productive. The two things are not compatible; sales is a zero-sum activity.
Find a small, local tech company (Score:2)
Best place to get some experience is with a small local tech company. I am the lead programmer and PBX admin for a small consulting company, located in a small town north of Nashville, TN. We recently had a longtime (2 years, off and on) intern/employee who graduated high school and now is going to college. I trained him myself in Perl, and he worked on a project which scripted Scribus. During the summer he worked full time, and during the school year, he came in on some afternoons after school (althoug
Still going to college? (Score:2)
If the first, I have little in the way of advice aside from trying to do your own projects on the side of whatever else you do, and get noticed from there.
If the last, bad idea. You won't get very far without at least a bachelor's unless you're very lucky, very connected, or very, very go
That's easy, the answer... (Score:2)
Free software (Score:2)
Get a job outside of IT (Score:2)
Anything you do, make your first one about selling yourself. It doesn't matter if it's relevant to your career, it only matters that you know how to get yourself out there.
I worked at a restaurant for 2 years, and 4 years I'm working at a nice place and making good money. My belief is that the lessons I learned at the restaurant were worth fa
Very good advice... (Score:2)
Work at Best Buy (Score:2)
Otherwise, try a temp agency or something like that with a company that could
What to do? read, Read, READ! (Score:4, Informative)
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Those are good recommendations, but if one's college doesn't have a good CS/IT program, the answer is to find one that does. Self-education can give the tools needed for a career, but it's hard to convince HR departments of that. Not having that piece of paper that (appropriately) says "BS" is a hurdle.
If you can't afford what you consider to be a "good" university, maybe you're setting your sights too high. You don't need an undergrad degree from a top 10 department; a top 100 department will set you u
Yeah, get to work (Score:2)
I hired a 16 year old (Score:2, Interesting)
Join a free software project (Score:2)
Instead you should join a free software project that you like. Ideally something that you
Start at the Bottom - Tech Support (Score:2)
While most problems will be simple, no-brainers, othe
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Of course, there's no reason why you can't learn both while in college, even if it means doing some self-study.
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If CS degree != professional training then... (Score:2)
I too am looking for a job, and I have obligations to my family that prevent me from moving far from my home town. However, even with a B.Sc. in computer science, I can't even get an interview in my home town because I lack recent paid experience. In order to make my resume more appealing, where can I get this "professional training" you speak of? Or am I supposed to go the fast food/retai
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Someone else mentioned temp work and you may be able to hunt something down through connections.
Imho it doesn't matter what you know half the time but who you know so find ways to get to know such people and impress them. In essence make friends; go to community, culture, volunteer or religious group meetings where people "hang out" (this is according to my father how you make friends in the US).
Volunteer work is another possibil
Education in the USA costs money (Score:2)
"Best Buy" is a brand used in a major country that doesn't pay for four years of postsecondary education for all high school graduates. It could be that "Nick Manley", the submitter of this story, is looking to build-up a down payment for this education.
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Most specifically learn how to speak (Score:2)
Also consider working at Best Buy if for nothing else but to get money to move to a fashionable part of Bangalore, India.
Any job you are thinking of getting training for now, will be gone by the time you get out.
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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
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The person in question, though, doesn't sound like he has such ambitions.
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Or your own cheerleaders!
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Take the Initiative! (Score:2)
I have no special contacts, no utterly unremarkable skill- I'm not trying to show off. My point is that if you can take the initiative to teach things to
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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. A
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First, there are plenty of programming jobs available if you are any good at it. The Indian talent pool is quite limited -- you can find a team of mediocre programmers, but good ones are hard to find. The lesson: mediocre just ain't good enough. Second, the main thing you need is a good education from a good university. Third, there are plenty of excellent, well-paying internships and co-op programs where you g
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