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Ask HN: What should I do, 17 year-old dev?

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Re: Ask HN: What should I do, 17 year-old dev?

#11
Hang in there . . . sorry to hear about your parents divorce . . . that's always a tough spot . . . just remember you're going to be heading off to college soon . . . but I'm sure family stuff will be awkward for a while . . .

You should be able to make pretty good money freelancing on some projects . . . better money than working typical teenager jobs . . . as far as freelancing I'd try to connect with someone on here who needs help . . . avoid eLance if you can.

While freelancing just give yourself plenty of time to complete projects with your limited schedule with school, maybe an hour or two a night and more time on the weekends. You don't have to volunteer that you're still in highschool. You should get an EIN number online from the IRS so your don't have to put your SSN on your W-9 forms that you'll need to give employers so they can send 1099 forms. Present work for incremental review and payment . . . don't undersell yourself . . . if you know what you're doing quote them a rate that's reasonable . . .

If you like development I would think about getting a CS degree as that might fit better with your current skill set . . . but college is a great time to explore other areas of interest. But being young you can become a killer rails developer during college and land a high salary right out of school . . . or get a degree in something you like and continue to develop your developer skill set as well so you'd have two options . . .

There is also the option to complete college and start your own business . . . start listening to StartUpsForTheRestOfUs.com.

As far as languages I'd focus on learning Rails (Ruby) and Laravel (PHP) and Angular. But learning any popular languages/frameworks is a plus.

Good luck . . . Youth is King.

Re: Ask HN: What should I do, 17 year-old dev?

#12
post #11

Hang in there . . . sorry to hear about your parents divorce . . . that's always a tough spot . . . just remember you're going to be heading off to college soon . . . but I'm sure family stuff will be awkward for a while . . . You should be able to make pretty good money freelancing on some projects . . . better money than working typical teenager jobs . . . as far as freelancing I'd try to connect with someone on he…

Hey Saluki! Thank you. I'm focused on Laravel right now; i do have some AngularJS experience but it was for a project and it wouldn't correctly work for me on some aspects so i dropped it and went with a Laravel setup which worked much easier than the JS experience. I appreciate the advice it means a lot. I'll surely start listening to that website you mentioned; I'll start learning Ruby as you've mentioned it. :-)

Thank you again!

Re: Ask HN: What should I do, 17 year-old dev?

#13
post #8

My advice would be to finish high school and, afterward, if you can[1], take a year off to go work for either a remote team, or move to a major city and work for a local team. I used to live out near Erie; the job market is nearly dead there for development. Once I started looking at Cleveland, things picked up. It looks like your equivalent major city is Pittsburgh. Once you've worked for a year or so, look into sta…

Yeah i've looked into erie and there wasn't much unless i had 3-5 yrs experience. I've actually been turning my depression into a way to help others; i do not want to take medication i was on it for some time but after awhile things wear off and the dosage goes higher... My step-dad (ex) is a doctor whom helps me out. Awesome you guys are hiring would love to maybe apply sometime in life. Thank you so much :)

Re: Ask HN: What should I do, 17 year-old dev?

#14

You've got a lot on your plate right now-- multiple competing priorities, compounded by the family situation. Strongly recommend reading> David Burns on Cognitive Therapy -- the writing exercises can help tremendously with the depression and your own personal development. The subject should also appeal to your Neuropsychology jones. > http://www.amazon.com/Feeling-Good-The-Mood-Therapy/dp/produ...

Hello JSeymourATL i appreciate the suggestion however i'm a deep follower of Burns :) in my room i have some of his charts taped onto my wall to remember how to think clearly. Thank you so much! :)

Re: Ask HN: What should I do, 17 year-old dev?

#17

You've got a lot on your plate right now-- multiple competing priorities, compounded by the family situation. Strongly recommend reading> David Burns on Cognitive Therapy -- the writing exercises can help tremendously with the depression and your own personal development. The subject should also appeal to your Neuropsychology jones. > http://www.amazon.com/Feeling-Good-The-Mood-Therapy/dp/produ...

Hello JSeymourATL i appreciate the suggestion however i'm a deep follower of Burns :) in my room i have some of his charts taped onto my wall to remember how to think clearly. Thank you so much! :)

Good on ya! Regarding your college conundrum, take a look at the military tuition assistance route-- it's been a smart play for a lot of guys. They need geeks more than warriors these days... > http://www.military.com/education/money-for-school/tuition-a...
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