Ask HN: Internships for a 13-year-old? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Internships for a 13-year-old?

#81

Post by pairing » Sat, Apr 04, 2015, 12:13 AM UTC

How about taking an online course this summer instead of an internship (Coursera's machine learning would probably be a very big project depending on your current level of math or the MIT SICP lectures & book to start learning CS/functional programming)?

The path to mastery is mostly self learning in my limited experience in software so far, so the earlier you learn that and build the skills to learn on your own the better off you will be. Learning on your own without a teacher, grades, mentor, or internship will prepare you more for the real world than most college students.

Re: Ask HN: Internships for a 13-year-old?

#82

Post by teenageSec » Sat, Apr 04, 2015, 1:07 AM UTC

lachlanjc wrote: post #66

Eridrus wrote: post #49

I would ask you why you're looking for an internship. If it's for the cash, as people have mentioned, you're going to have a tough time due to legal issues. If you're just interested in getting more experience, I would try to find a mentor who could recommend potentially interesting projects to work on. There are a bunch of interesting computing technologies that are becoming more and more accessible to use (e.g. ima…

It’s not for the cash — I’m not even concerned that I’ll get paid at all. I more want it because endlessly building things on your own isn’t as challenging or as much fun as being with a team for a little while. I’d also like to meet some more new people along the way. On security: I’ve emailed several companies about security bugs on their websites, but I hadn’t considered being paid for it. I’ll check that out! Tha…

Email me (teenageSec@mailinator.com) sometime if you want to chat about web security stuff. I'm 17 years old and I tend to spend my free time working on bug bounties etc. I can certainly give you some pointers on this sort of thing.

Re: Ask HN: Internships for a 13-year-old?

#83

Post by Eridrus » Sat, Apr 04, 2015, 1:21 AM UTC

lachlanjc wrote: post #66

Eridrus wrote: post #49

I would ask you why you're looking for an internship. If it's for the cash, as people have mentioned, you're going to have a tough time due to legal issues. If you're just interested in getting more experience, I would try to find a mentor who could recommend potentially interesting projects to work on. There are a bunch of interesting computing technologies that are becoming more and more accessible to use (e.g. ima…

It’s not for the cash — I’m not even concerned that I’ll get paid at all. I more want it because endlessly building things on your own isn’t as challenging or as much fun as being with a team for a little while. I’d also like to meet some more new people along the way. On security: I’ve emailed several companies about security bugs on their websites, but I hadn’t considered being paid for it. I’ll check that out! Tha…

If you're interested in working on larger projects, you should look into contributing to open source projects.

Re: Ask HN: Internships for a 13-year-old?

#84

Post by lachlanjc » Sat, Apr 04, 2015, 2:46 PM UTC

sodevious wrote: post #50

Getting an internship at 13 can be difficult, but not impossible. Here's my advice from my experience coming to NYC for an internship while in HS: - Try your hardest, and don't let anyone tell you you can't. - Figure out if there are any employment laws that could affect you working somewhere. - Don't tell people how old you are, until it's absolutely necessary (legally), let them judge you on your skillset and portf…

👍 Thanks sodevious!

Re: Ask HN: Internships for a 13-year-old?

#85

Post by aries1980 » Tue, Apr 07, 2015, 10:29 AM UTC

Hi,

I don't know the legal ages in the US, but in Europe you can't take work officially below 16. What I recommend is rather to make contact with the leaders of some serious open-source project you like and contribute. You gain some fame and get in touch some people who will happy to take their company bounty to recruit you later. :)

PS: it is just wording, but you probably looking for a apprenticeship, not an internship if you are looking for a formal work.