Ask HN: What did you do (or wish you did) when you got out of highschool?

11 points by kdude63 11 years ago | 20 comments

Basically, I graduate from highschool in a week and have no idea what I should do.

I currently live in a small town in Northern California where there's not much room for opportunity... So far my plan is to get a minimum-wage job and save up until I can afford to move to Sacramento, where I have a couple friends I can live with and obviously better job opportunities. I plan on going to college and getting a degree in CS afterwards, and then try to make my way into the tech industry.

Is this a bad idea? ... What should I do if so?

privatedan 11 years ago |

Why take a minimum wage job when you can probably contract yourself out doing a number of different things? I worked part-time one summer for $6/hr ( ~ 0.75 higher than minimum wage ) in between sophomore/junior year in high school. Towards the end of the summer, I started mowing some lawns for some people I knew and was making ~$20 per lawn ( which took about an hour each ).

Next summer, I figured if I only mowed one lawn a day, I'd make the same $$$. Ended up mowing 10+ lawns a week at $25-40 a piece ( I averaged ~$20 - $25/hr depending on the week ). My favorite move was to go to my customer's neighbors and say "Hi! I'm cutting Sam's lawn for $x. If you let me cut your lawn for $x - $5, I'll knock $5 off Sam's lawn as well. Get your lawn cut and save your neighbor some cash." That worked pretty well and kept my transit time down.

Even if you take a min wage job for stability, try contracting yourself out a bit on the side and bank that cash. You'll get where you're going quicker.

bartonfink 11 years ago | |

That's a hell of a sales tactic in a market where social ties matter. Kudos to you for figuring it out.

dav- 11 years ago |

Three months after my high school graduation, I moved to Silicon Valley. It was one of the best choices I could have made.

I grew up in a small desert town with not much room to grow. The opportunities there were limited for what I wanted to do, and I knew that if I was still living in that town when I was 40, or even 30, I wouldn't be happy.

Being the procrastinator that I am, I knew that I had to take action immediately, or I would inevitably fall into a lull of complacence: a mediocre job, a girlfriend, a dog? And then I would be stuck; eternally glued to this town that I hated by second-rate obligations. (Not entirely true, people make drastic changes even with other obligations all the time, but it's not common.)

I was (and still am) young, and I believe that you should take as many calculated risks as possible when you're young. Do it before you have a mortgage, a spouse, a kid. It's so much easier then, because failing doesn't mean letting your child go hungry, or losing your home and living on the streets. Worst case, you have to move back in with your parents (assuming they're supportive).

When I'm laying on my deathbed and analyzing my life, I would rather regret trying and failing to achieve my dreams than regret not trying at all. When it gets right down to it, I don't think I would regret failing one bit. Failure is part of life, and since I've moved here I've failed plenty of times. Probably more times than I've succeeded. But the value of my few successes outweighs my many failures, and that's the key.

I've gotten a good job, learned and grown more than I would have imagined possible, met dozens of amazing people, made lifelong friends, co-founded an organization, and I'm happier than I've ever been. Not only that, but I'm excited for the future.

I've still got a long way to go, but I'm so glad that I had the courage and drive to go out of my comfort zone, into a completely foreign situation, all alone, and just do it. Granted, I was extremely lucky to have the full support of my parents and family, but even if I hadn't I think I still would have gone out and done it.

Of course, this is not advice for everyone. It's not really advice at all, just my own experience. Yours may vary. Best of luck.

jf22 11 years ago |

I did what I wanted, was lazy, did too many drugs, danced to too much music and didn't care about the future. Life got messy at some points and I was almost homeless a couple of times. My career growth was stunted by I ended up about in the same place, or better, as my peers who "applied themselves".

I took shitty jobs that made me appreciate the perks of sitting behind a desk. I roamed around a dirt poor social circles which made me appreciate money. I hung with happy hippies who didn't give a shit about what society said thought about them and learned what inner peace means.

My perspective about measuring success and failure was changed by my post high school experiences. I chase goals and dreams differently now because I got all the fun and partying out of my system and look back on my life with fond memories of all the excitement I had.

Its like I'm not working hard to I can retire and have fun again you know? I know what the uninhibited lifestyle is like and the pros and cons. I choose to live a more calm life because I made a rational decision. Not because I feel like I'm pressured by social norms or external expectations.

Now I have a good 9-5 job, some freelance clients, two failed saas businesses, two content sites. I work hard now but only real difference between me and people in similar situations is our age and how peaceful we are internally.

If everything around me crumbles and I have nothing again I'm sort of ok with that. I don't worry if I missed out on anything and can relate to the joy and struggles of entirely different classes of people.

I guess that brings me a sort of peace when I'm working a long night or putting in extra effort. I just don't get stressed out about things and there is no nagging voice telling me to relax, I did that already. ;)

If I were you I'd fuck about, take a furniture delivery job, work in a kitchen and do things only a 20 year old body can handle. Make friends with people who you'll probably never be able to meet again after your CS career takes off and overall, relax.

Gain life experience instead of computer experience.

27182818284 11 years ago |

I think Sacramento might be sub-optimal. I'll throw out a couple other tech cities that have a much, much, much lower cost of living, but still exciting developments. I think you can get to these places faster, and then develop skills or make some money or even attend college. (I'd actually recommend college first. I know it is fashionable to hate on college right now, but the overwhelming evidence is that it is still a good thing)

==Kansas City Probably the heart of Silicon Prairie right now, it has amazing areas like the Kansas City Startup Village where hackers live together in houses next door to each other powered with Google Fiber. (Need help with something in iOS? Walk a house down and ask the guys in the other place. That type of thing) Not only is it a great city with great BBQ, beer and history, but it the biggest emerging tech scene in the Midwest. This includes, but isn't limited to http://eyeverify.com/ http://www.gethandprint.com/ etc etc etc

==Lincoln, Nebraska Home of the University of Nebraska, it is an emerging tech center with new accelerators and venture capital firms in its sister city like http://dundeeventurecapital.com/ (Omaha is an hour away by car) and other avenues for funding like http://www.investnebraska.com/ and the http://www.nebraskaangels.org/. The fastest growing private company in Nebraska is http://www.hudl.com/, which started as a 3-person startup, but now has 3 offices in two cities. Similarly, the university is in the process of launching Innovation Campus which almost doubles the land area of its campus and includes maker spaces, business accelerators, and more.

logn 11 years ago |

I went straight from HS to college with the help of my parents. But I also worked half the year full-time and went to school the other half full-time. I highly recommend this path. Learn basic programming skills first, then enroll in a CS program, then market yourself to employers and apply to any intern/co-op positions. I could have never divided my attention between work and school simultaneously, so I think alternating work and school is ideal.

Also, learning programming before enrolling in a CS program is from my experience the best path to not failing out. Professors do not really teach programming. They give assignments and do their best at lectures which doesn't really help your brain think programmatically.

spiralhead 11 years ago |

If you want to break into the tech industry, the best thing you can do right now is just start building stuff. Think of a mobile app or a web app that has a simple purpose that you think would be useful, then use the internet to teach yourself how to build it. If you can pull that off then you have a very good shot at a career as a developer. If you can't then you probably either don't have the drive or the aptitude, in which case you'll be spending a few more years figuring out what you want to do.

kdude63 11 years ago | |

I know I have the aptitude... drive would be my problem. I just find it difficult to actually want to work on something. That's not really abnormal is it?...

TheAlchemist 11 years ago | | |

Why going into tech industry actually ?

As obvious as it sounds, you should go into the field that you are passionate about.

As one old dude said a long time ago: "Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude"

JSeymourATL 11 years ago |

Bravo for thinking to ask such a profound question. No doubt you'll go far!

Personally, I wish I started a program of autodidacticism earlier. Teaching myself about business & technical subjects that interested me. Also, make a habit of reading biographies of great men. Tremendous lessons can be learned that way.

Finally, read up on Goal Setting and implementing your action plans. *You've got less time than you think. Get Going Now!

osmnshkh 11 years ago |

I'm in the same position right now. Instead of getting a job where you won't learn anything, try and get a job or an internship at a startup. I've worked at a local startup for the past year and it's been an amazing experience. I learned a lot and met a lot of interesting people.

https://angel.co/jobs

vincentbarr 11 years ago |

Travel, without question.

joeclark77 11 years ago |

Also: NEVER BORROW MONEY FOR ANYTHING if you can help it. How I wish I could tell my 18-year-old self that!

joeclark77 11 years ago |

In the "what did you wish you did" category, think about joining the military. They will pay you more than some minimum-wage job would, give you training and possibly an exciting tech job like cyber-warfare. (Not to mention the uniform and the physical training that'll help you attract a good woman!) Maybe you don't have any sense of duty or patriotism (most of us didn't at your age)... but you probably will in 15 years, and you'll thank yourself! There are a lot of us old guys who wish we had served, but I've never met an old veteran who wishes he hadn't.

Think about the other stuff you're probably planning to do with the next decade: work some entry-level jobs, live with your parents, sit on the sofa, play a lot of video games, etc. Why not drive a submarine or work with satellites or something instead?

JSeymourATL 11 years ago | |

*Ditto: Great chance to see the world, and prove yourself. You'll come back with confidence you can't get anywhere else.

jesusmichael 11 years ago |

Jasmine Lynn Schurr...