Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: How does a 16 year old go about getting work on software?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 46 posts

Re: Ask HN: How does a 16 year old go about getting work on software?

#31

Post by Lambdanaut »

anon3_ wrote: post #19
jc4p wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bingo. This is exactly what I did. Build a lot of of things, it doesn't have to be unique, it doesn't have to have a business plan, it just needs to be something. Build tools to help automate simple things you do every day. Build tools just for yourself. That way in a couple years you'll already come to the field with a huge portfolio, and who knows one of your random projects might actually end up getting popular an…

When you did that, was it a website? A service? Simply having an open source project in itself brings in no cash . Can either of you (or someone else) go into detail on your experience? Links are OK! The OP (and myself) would love inspiration :)

I built a social website for artists. It exposed me to the whole stack and I learned an immense amount. I got my first paying gig by using the website I built as a foot in the door. Nothing beats learning by doing.

Re: Ask HN: How does a 16 year old go about getting work on software?

#32

Post by toast0 »

anon3_ wrote: post #20
clarky07 wrote: post #3

You could work on things for yourself. As a 16 yr old presumably living with your parents there's no risk. I'd suggest starting with a small mobile iPhone or Android app. Make a little bit of side money while building a portfolio you can use to your advantage later.

Regarding iPhone and Android apps? How do you monetize that? No offense, but these markets are highly saturated. Even if you truly had the merits - how could you possibly be seen across the noise?

Build for Windows Phone instead. Less noise, and learning the basics is good on any platform.

Re: Ask HN: How does a 16 year old go about getting work on software?

#33

Post by xxtjaxx »

anon3_ wrote: post #19
jc4p wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bingo. This is exactly what I did. Build a lot of of things, it doesn't have to be unique, it doesn't have to have a business plan, it just needs to be something. Build tools to help automate simple things you do every day. Build tools just for yourself. That way in a couple years you'll already come to the field with a huge portfolio, and who knows one of your random projects might actually end up getting popular an…

When you did that, was it a website? A service? Simply having an open source project in itself brings in no cash . Can either of you (or someone else) go into detail on your experience? Links are OK! The OP (and myself) would love inspiration :)

Had experience in sysops perl scripting for web apps under my belt (wanted unified dashboard + designer for monitoring metrics visualization https://github.com/andrdeas-marschke/nagplot) in the process reverse enginieered NRPE from source / wiretracing and created one of the most if no the most linked articles on the protocol in the process. Released the code as seperate package (Nagios::NRPE).

Then decided to learn JS and node and started writing a web real user monitoring system based on http://github.com/bluesmoon/boomerang. While at it submitted PRs to upstream and engaged in the community mostly with complaints about sftandard stuff missing and modules not being in a good state.

Now I work in the same company as the guy who created boomerang and lpve every minute of it.

Re: Ask HN: How does a 16 year old go about getting work on software?

#34

Post by Pfhreak »

cweagans wrote: post #9

Just build something - it really doesn't matter what. You have a good window of time where you have very little requirements in terms of paying rent, bills, etc., so take advantage of that and just write as much code as you possibly can.

I'm a dev who became a manager. I do a lot of interviews at one of the big tech companies. I cannot overstate how right cweagans is -- you have the opportunity now to just build stuff. Explore new projects, get passionate, learn as much as you can. You don't have to finish every project, but try to get one polished and shipped. The first question I often ask candidates is to tell me about a project they found challenging and interesting, and if you have a wall of those projects you'll be a leg up on your peers.

Re: Ask HN: How does a 16 year old go about getting work on software?

#35

Post by arielm »

anon3_ wrote: post #19
jc4p wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bingo. This is exactly what I did. Build a lot of of things, it doesn't have to be unique, it doesn't have to have a business plan, it just needs to be something. Build tools to help automate simple things you do every day. Build tools just for yourself. That way in a couple years you'll already come to the field with a huge portfolio, and who knows one of your random projects might actually end up getting popular an…

When you did that, was it a website? A service? Simply having an open source project in itself brings in no cash . Can either of you (or someone else) go into detail on your experience? Links are OK! The OP (and myself) would love inspiration :)

I started by building services but never really expected a payment, I just wanted to build something and figure out my way around servers. I think that's the best way to get started because it affords you the opportunity to start over if you find a new framework/database/server/etc. and there's no penalty for failing.

Re: Ask HN: How does a 16 year old go about getting work on software?

#36

Post by myg204 »

Email a professor at a nearby university talking up some interest in his field and pitch him/her your interest in gaining experience building software, he/she may have something in store if you're willing to do it for free?

Having said that, the other thing that will help you down the road may be getting some good theoretical knowledge in related fields (math, cs); as noted by paul_milovanov in this thread.

Good luck.

Re: Ask HN: How does a 16 year old go about getting work on software?

#37

Post by jtwebman »

Find something you want to build and build it. Mobile App idea? Website Idea, anything really? The more passionate you are about it the better it will be.

If you can't think of anything then maybe try a code camp over the summer. They cost money but they will definitely teach you how to write code at a company vs open source and they might even be able to hook you up with a nice internship once it is over.

If you can't afford that then you could try getting an internship by going to coding meetups and when people say they are hiring people go ask them if they are will to bring on an intern. Tell them you learn fast.

You could also use one of your parents to sign up on those sites. If you wanted you could even just build a site for yourself and marketed it a little at local meetups. In the end it is up to you to make the effort.

On all the talk about if you should go to formal school or not that is up to you. It isn't needed but just know you will have to learn a bunch about software design and different libraries on the job. Formal schooling will teach you theories and code camps will teach you one way with current processes. So if you enjoy theories and building compilers than formal schooling might be perfect for you. If you just want to build cool stuff and are will to learn as you go then skip the $100,000 price tag and learn as you go.

Just know whatever you learn at code camp, in school, or even your first job or internship is not the only way. Programming for a living is learning every day. There are many correct ways to build a system and Ruby, Python, C#, Javascript whatever you learn first isn't the only way. Find what you enjoy and do more of that.

Re: Ask HN: How does a 16 year old go about getting work on software?

#38

Post by imron »

paul_milovanov wrote: post #30

Beware of foregoing formal university education just because you are getting coding gigs. CS/math fundamentals are golden and make the difference between you being just another redundant dime-a-dozen ruby coder and a world-class engineer. Not to mention personal enjoyment of what you do down the line. Take a look at the Silicon Valley for proof. Learning all this stuff on your own is possible, but much harder when yo…

> CS/math fundamentals are golden

I agree with this. Before going to university I thought I was an ace programmer.

After just a single semester I could look back and see just how sloppy and awful my pre-university programming was.

I'm very thankful to my university degree for teaching me rigour and core CS fundamentals. Yes, you can learn them elsewhere, but like my parent post says, it's much harder and sometimes you might not even know where to start.

Re: Ask HN: How does a 16 year old go about getting work on software?

#39

Post by microcolonel »

I started working full time at a web development consultancy at about that age, you'll get screwed a bit: you'll likely be brought in at a less-than-appropriate salary, as I was.

If you're stable and have all the basics; food, shelter, access to electricity and computer networks; Try to write some software of your own accord, and attend some meetups. It sucks to be below legal drinking age at a free beer event, but you'll meet some people you'll like for sure.

Write some open source code if you want to attract people who have technical ability, write something you think would be useful, and test it with the market, if you would like to attract business.

Another thing mentioned a bit too pro-university here, was the importance of culture and theoretical knowledge. You should probably know your O notation and vacuum up Wikipedia pages on graph theory, discrete maths, or whatever tickles your fancy. Maybe take a weekend to learn how formal verification works, and write a proof or two in Isabelle or Coq. Maybe broaden your horizons to natural language processing, or go into the bowels of the machines you're programming, figure out how adders work.

By far what has helped me the most to prevent myself from being alienated from my industry(which is full of theoretically astute graduates), has been a focus on being cultured and knowing everything they know and more about the topic at hand.

Do not, under any circumstance, let your elders outknow you, or you will be defined by your age.

Re: Ask HN: How does a 16 year old go about getting work on software?

#40

Post by tracker1 »

paul_milovanov wrote: post #30

Beware of foregoing formal university education just because you are getting coding gigs. CS/math fundamentals are golden and make the difference between you being just another redundant dime-a-dozen ruby coder and a world-class engineer. Not to mention personal enjoyment of what you do down the line. Take a look at the Silicon Valley for proof. Learning all this stuff on your own is possible, but much harder when yo…

As someone without a formal education in this path, I mostly agree...

It took almost a decade before I would have considered myself very good... And in fairness, many of those even with formal education I wouldn't consider good. Passion accounts for a lot. I didn't start getting really good until I actually started deeper reading into more conceptual bits of programming, and some of the hard math still isn't the easiest for me, fortunately a lot of real world work doesn't need it so much in practice.

In development, with sufficient drive and without formal education, you'll spend 4-5 years just mastering your tools (the languages you tend to use, your environment for development and deployment etc)... and another 4-5 years on deeper understanding of the craft itself... even then you'll be missing on some of the deeper more low-level understanding.

There's room in this world for both, but if you can get a formal education without amassing hundreds of thousands in debt, I'd say go for it. Just don't think you'll be done learning when you graduate (I still spend at least 10-20 hours a week reading on software/tech), and accept that you will have to break every rule in practice during a career.

Post reply on HN