Ask HN: A 19 year old, what should I do? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: A 19 year old, what should I do?

#81

Post by coolsebz » Tue, Apr 01, 2014, 1:36 PM UTC

ccrush wrote: post #67

I've been reading this site for a long time, and I signed up today just to tell you to go to college. I've been programming professionally for 10 years, since I was 19 years old; your age. I dropped out of college to work, and I've been making $100k+/yr for about 4 years now. I dropped out because I thought I didn't need the degree, but now I regret not finishing. If you don't think that CompSci is challenging, you c…

Hah, multumesc! :D Thanks for signing back in, I'll be sure to check mechanical engineering for future studies, I've always wanted to look some more in that domain!

Re: Ask HN: A 19 year old, what should I do?

#82

Post by danielweber » Tue, Apr 01, 2014, 1:36 PM UTC

coolsebz wrote: post #23

patio11 wrote: post #12

I'm not sure where you're physically located, but if you were a young cousin of mine on either the US or Japanese sides of the family, I'd tell you get the degree. If you feel that college is too easy mode for you, feel free to take more difficult or eclectic courses, or throw yourself into extracurriculars. (It's a great time to learn a foreign language.) Why get the degree? 1) Because there is no circumstance where…

Thank you for your response! I'm living in Eastern Europe, Romania; not exactly a tech hub, which is why the college level is so low :/ Most of what I've learned is from free available resources (books, lectures, you name it) Thanks for the points on why I should get the degree, they make sense!

If you ever want to move to the US (and I'm not saying you should, but many people do), getting the degree will make you one less factor of "weird" to US employers.

Re: Ask HN: A 19 year old, what should I do?

#83

Post by coolsebz » Tue, Apr 01, 2014, 1:42 PM UTC

vectorpush wrote: post #78

You're me almost a decade ago. A couple semesters into college, I picked up a part time role as a junior developer. Since, like you, I had already been programming for years, I exceeded expectations and became highly valued by my employer. Part time became full time, and I started to make a lot of money for a college kid. At the same time, I was learning so much from my work that school seemed to wane in utility, rea…

Yes, that's exactly like it was for me too! Thanks for the advice!

Re: Ask HN: A 19 year old, what should I do?

#84

Post by mcdougle » Tue, Apr 01, 2014, 1:43 PM UTC

gkya wrote: post #68

mcdougle wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't want to say this in my post, because honestly OP might have a great social life and just not be enjoying the school part (didn't want to assume). But yes; undergrad was boring as hell for me and I felt I didn't learn much, but it was very worthwhile because it was the most fun time of my life this far, even if for no other reason

In this age, schools are totally irrelevant as the place to receive information; there are so many places to get required information from internet, especially in the field of CS, as long as one's able to interpret data's truth. Schools, I think, are only good for getting people to socialise and give them a basic amount of knowledge that is fundamental to be able to communicate and think in a modern way.

Oh, definitely. I mean, the basic stuff we learned as kids is important, but I feel like I could learn anything I want to on my own, especially with Google available these days. The school system just feels a bit archaic to me. I hear all of these arguments that we need to try to be more like Japan, but I think we need to go in the opposite direction -- less focus on degrees, less focus on busywork, more focus on learning skills that are applicable to real life and lots more hands-on experience rather than lectures and tests.

I'd actually love to see more push for little entrepreneurs to be creative and businessy (whereas it seems like they try to squash that out!) as I, personally, feel that having more entrepreneurs and more businesses is a big part of the ticket to fixing the economy. I remember when I was little, I thought I'd try to monetize one of my skills by selling my drawings on the playground -- harmless, right? Well, I got in trouble and was told not to do it anymore because selling things at school wasn't allowed.

Re: Ask HN: A 19 year old, what should I do?

#85

Post by coolsebz » Tue, Apr 01, 2014, 1:47 PM UTC

Barreljack wrote: post #66

coolsebz, I felt the same way when I was in college. A year and a half in I dropped out. Like you I also programmed for fun at a young age and loved the pleasure it gave me. The ability to create something on my own from virtually nothing was incredibly exciting. Once I found out I could also make money I was hooked. When I dropped out I started a company that failed horribly in the first year. However, in that year…

Thank you for your reply! I also was considering starting something on my own and dedicating all of my time to it, it's just that I'm worried since there isn't much of a "safety net" whilst you're doing such things. Thank you!

Re: Ask HN: A 19 year old, what should I do?

#86

Post by coolsebz » Tue, Apr 01, 2014, 1:47 PM UTC

ThePawnBreak wrote: post #80

coolsebz wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for your response! I'm living in Eastern Europe, Romania; not exactly a tech hub, which is why the college level is so low :/ Most of what I've learned is from free available resources (books, lectures, you name it) Thanks for the points on why I should get the degree, they make sense!

Hey! I'am also from Romania. Where do you study?

Hey! :D Timisoara, UVT

Re: Ask HN: A 19 year old, what should I do?

#87

Post by coolsebz » Tue, Apr 01, 2014, 1:48 PM UTC

harmont2007 wrote: post #73

coolsebz wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for your response! I'm living in Eastern Europe, Romania; not exactly a tech hub, which is why the college level is so low :/ Most of what I've learned is from free available resources (books, lectures, you name it) Thanks for the points on why I should get the degree, they make sense!

A good university to get into (that I had gone through) is National University here in the US. Not only is it in a great city (Sunny San Diego, California), but also you learn some really useful tools in the programming field. There are a lot of international students from different parts of the world (India, Romania, Irag, Iran, China, Japan, etc) at National University. If you are not able to do that, check around…

I didn't know there were such opportunities to study there! I'll be looking some more into that!

Re: Ask HN: A 19 year old, what should I do?

#88

Post by ojr » Tue, Apr 01, 2014, 1:51 PM UTC

I left college, the opportunity cost is too high for me, I can't live the luxury of buying a software book for around $200 just to write pseudo code, hopefully the trillion dollar school loan debt bubble will pop and there will be more changes to the system, I have open source projects and closed source projects. I live in Boston, Massachusetts so I know when I apply for a job I am likely going against people with degrees, maybe even some from colleges like MIT and Harvard. That hasn't stopped me from applying and has not stopped employers from setting up interviews.

Of course especially in a college-filled place like Boston there are employers that will not even look at you without a degree. So having a degree will widen your opportunities and strengthen your job security but at the cost of going to college and time you could be doing other things.

My advice is to work on a project that generates some sort of revenue. I think the ability to show that you can make software that creates profit is very valuable. I would hire Jane that drop out of college and earned $10,000 from a SaaS application than Joe who earned a Computer Science degree by googling solutions to his Java homework problems.

Fortune favors the prepared mind. So pick up good programming books from the bay and try to read some chapters. It is normal for companies in an interview to test how well you know different data structures and algorithms so if you can't learn that type of material on your own, you might need to go to college and let it be forced upon you.

Whatever software technologies you are passionate about learn it well and I truly believe in the long run the trendy new popular technology you bet your career on will pay off, you might be 22 before it happens though.

I believe in you!

Re: Ask HN: A 19 year old, what should I do?

#89

Post by coolsebz » Tue, Apr 01, 2014, 2:17 PM UTC

c0g wrote: post #29

Given you're Romanian, that means you can easily study in other European countries right? I know of great places in Germany, France, the UK and Finland to study - and there are definitely more. Might be worth considering - get somewhere with a big tech scene, higher wages and more difficult courses.

I have looked into that, and yes, there are some pretty awesome colleges out there, but I feel they are out of my reach right now (I have no connections, it's a bit too expensive to be financing it all by myself, etc). If you would like to give me some more details, please ping me on my email: coolsebz@gmail.com

Re: Ask HN: A 19 year old, what should I do?

#90

Post by alfl23 » Tue, Apr 01, 2014, 2:19 PM UTC

coolsebz wrote: post #69

alfl23 wrote: post #61

It's a simple choice as long as you stay rational. People bullshit and fear as they don't see the picture themselves. Entrepreneurship is not for everybody, if you go down that path, don't expect great council at every corner. In your lifetime, you will meet very few people who truly think like you. Everybody pushes you to college because in their mind it's the only way. And that's ok, most people are weak. Now the r…

Thank you for your reply! I too see myself crunching more than 10 hours a day to work on my own thing, it's just that all the people around me are exactly as you've described them, trying to see the only way to the nice sunset. Thanks again!

Very glad to help! Just remember, whatever your move is, don't argue with the world around you. They won't get it. Prove leadership qualities, smile, keep your composure and find the middle ground.

Best of luck!