71–80 of 85 posts
Contribute to an open source project. Drupal has had serious, valued contributors as young as nine and ten. One of them, Dmitri Gaskin, keynoted a Drupal conference where he talked about his experiences as a contributor. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMJCOViG0jE
[I am not a lawyer] In the United States, Federal labor law limits the employment of children. The restrictions on employing people under age 14 are rather severe and would probably preclude any sort of internship: http://www.youthrules.dol.gov/know-the-limits/under14.htm This is probably the summer to work on side projects. Next year the rules allow a far wider range of employment opportunities: http://www.youthrule…
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Counter-perspective: I do wish I'd spent more summers working in software. Going to camp and doing regular kid things made me miserable. Working for software companies as a teenager absolutely helped me in my career, and it was absolutely worth the time.
Thanks for your perspective. I guess I'll add this to my own comment: working at a real job as a teenager isn't going to make or break his career. He's a smart and driven kid, just as you seem to have been. If he enjoys coding more than socializing or traveling or whatever, he should certainly code, but he's already well beyond his peers (and always will be). It's just very different to work on your own stuff at your…
Which is exactly why I'd suggest working for someone if that's what he's into. Working with other engineers will give you a real sense of engineering standards, give you a sense of how to work on teams, help you set a reasonable pace etc. In a lot of ways at that stage in life your boss is much closer to a mentor/coach.
I would not suggest he does contract work, but instead finds a group of people who are interested in teaching and mentoring. I think we are comparing different outcomes in that sense.
Hey Lachlan, I'm a 19-year-old software engineer for Barracuda Networks. When I was about your age, I was very interested in programming and computers as well. :) (You can actually find screenshots all the way back to the very embarrassing beginning where I tried to figure out how fonts + iframes worked here: http://www.screenshots.com/ghostlypets.com/2005-12-15 ) Like you, I spent a lot of time wishing I could just…
I’m trying to learn some other languages/architectures, and side projects are basically everything I’ve worked on so far. With school in the way it’s hard to find enough time for everything. That’s why I’m trying to find something really interesting to work on this summer.
Also: I looked into those laws a bit and it seems like once I’m 14 (I will be once an internship for me could start), I can work 8 hours/day while school isn’t in session.
I'm 16, and I was in your position as well, also at age 13. I think I might be able to give you some perspective. At 12, I started working on an open-source Ruby gem in a not-so-niche market (would rather not say, might give it away). I (American) had an offer from overseas (Britain) to work on a very small project in Ruby using the gem I created. I got paid about $200 I think, over PayPal. That made me want to start…
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Counter-perspective: I do wish I'd spent more summers working in software. Going to camp and doing regular kid things made me miserable. Working for software companies as a teenager absolutely helped me in my career, and it was absolutely worth the time.
I completely agree with that. Normal kid things sound incredibly boring :)
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Don't go around asking companies to do something illegal for you. I agree that hustling is good, but not when you put the burden of your success on someone else.
Working on projects with people you meet/know isn’t illegal. Getting a real job would be, but not this :)
Unpaid internships are illegal except under some very restrictive conditions.
That said, these things don't seem to make it to court, so you're probably not risking anything by doing them.
Maybe not the most popular opinion here, or maybe it will be, but advice from a father of two boys: Enjoy your childhood for the remaining 3-5 years before worrying so much about your professional career. You have decades of working in software ahead of you, if you continue on that path. Just enjoy your childhood, go out and play, or even just work on projects you enjoy. Once your childhood is gone, you'll regret not…
Many people who are the best at what they do started their careers very early. If someone wants do that then I don't think you should discourage them. Being satisfied with your career and work over the span of a lifetime because you spent the time to get good at it is more valuable a few years of goofing off. Besides, age 13-14 is when you start high school, and that's when things get real anyway. If you intend to ap…
> more valuable a few years of goofing off
That depends on what "goofing off" is. Is it socializing and developing interpersonal skills? Because wild success hinges much more on interpersonal skills than it does on being the best programmer.
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Many people who are the best at what they do started their careers very early. If someone wants do that then I don't think you should discourage them. Being satisfied with your career and work over the span of a lifetime because you spent the time to get good at it is more valuable a few years of goofing off. Besides, age 13-14 is when you start high school, and that's when things get real anyway. If you intend to ap…
I started charging for software development at 14. As I've said elsewhere, it didn't have any effect on my career whether I was charging for the work or not. Everything I did as a teenager was only valuable because I kept having to learn new areas of programming. > more valuable a few years of goofing off That depends on what "goofing off" is. Is it socializing and developing interpersonal skills? Because wild succes…
I think you'd learn more about how to socialize with adults in an industry by hanging out with them... at work. And these are the people you want to get along with anyways.