Ask HN: What should I do, 17 year-old dev?

10 points by justfane 11 years ago | 16 comments

Hello HN... I'm 17 years old from Rimersburg, PA i'm a young developer who has worked with one fairly large company on an iPad game and a few small projects of my own. My life has been complicated since that job... My parents recently got divorced and there is little to no money around my house anymore i live in such a small area that jobs are rare but my skills are above a regular job... What are my options as to making some extra money with my skills online? Freelance is sorta hard to compete with a school schedule i'm a senior at a high-school in my area as right now i want togo to college for Neuropsychology but that all depends if i can get financial aid because legally my parents aren't divorced yet as the court is still processing it. My job with the recent company a couple months ago (5) had togo because i was suffering to much from low-grade depression and severe depression because of the divorce. I know i could leave the sob story out but thats the sole truth. I've got some skills in server management Windows & Unix/Linux. I've got developmental skills in PHP, CSS/HTML/CSS, NodeJs and worked with some frameworks here and there... I was just wondering if anyone out there needed a young guy to help manage a project for a very small price as i don't live on my own yet i just want to make some money to be able to leave the area for college. Willing to really do whatever and learning a new language is no problem at all. I'm available from 3 pm to 3 am on the weekdays the weekends are whatever; i've got a nice development setup that i paid for all on my own. I've managed projects before using trello and designing projects in certain dev tools such as visio and others. I can pretty much do anything someone would need... If anyone would like to work together just drop me a line via e-mail at Seth@fane.co Thank you; HN community i've been a follower of HN for about a year now. Best wishes to everyone...

karterk 11 years ago |

I don't have a job offer for you, but I hope you are getting professional help for your depression. It's a terrible disease, so don't let it sneak up on you.

There is a freelance hiring thread [1] on HN that's posted every month. Take the last 3 months of postings and send a personalized email to every one of them. Companies are constantly looking for good people. Describe what you bring to the table and offer to send some samples of your work. All the best, and do let us know how it goes.

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=whoishiring

justfane 11 years ago | |

Hello Karterk; I am receiving/maintaining my depression; my (ex?) step-father is a doctor. I wont thank you; :-) its sure had its days though.

Sounds good i really appreciate you helping me out; means more than ever the support from the HN community.

Spoom 11 years ago |

My advice would be to finish high school and, afterward, if you can[1], take a year off to go work for either a remote team, or move to a major city and work for a local team.

I used to live out near Erie; the job market is nearly dead there for development. Once I started looking at Cleveland, things picked up. It looks like your equivalent major city is Pittsburgh.

Once you've worked for a year or so, look into state colleges etc. for degrees. Neuropsychology sounds like it would need a degree, unlike development (which would benefit from one but isn't shackled to it). Just make sure you're not paying too much for it. If you're not going to an ivy league school, find a cheap but competent program. Private colleges are only likely to put you in more debt than you need.

Get some help for the depression. Wellbutrin helped me way back when, but your best option may be something different. A doctor can help with this.

We are hiring, but we're looking for very experienced developers local to Cleveland, so it likely wouldn't help you.

1. Only take a year off if it will not affect your access to doctors and medicine. If you are reliant on your parents for health insurance, I believe you need to go directly from high school to college to still be eligible.

justfane 11 years ago | |

Yeah i've looked into erie and there wasn't much unless i had 3-5 yrs experience. I've actually been turning my depression into a way to help others; i do not want to take medication i was on it for some time but after awhile things wear off and the dosage goes higher... My step-dad (ex) is a doctor whom helps me out. Awesome you guys are hiring would love to maybe apply sometime in life. Thank you so much :)

saluki 11 years ago |

Hang in there . . . sorry to hear about your parents divorce . . . that's always a tough spot . . . just remember you're going to be heading off to college soon . . . but I'm sure family stuff will be awkward for a while . . .

You should be able to make pretty good money freelancing on some projects . . . better money than working typical teenager jobs . . . as far as freelancing I'd try to connect with someone on here who needs help . . . avoid eLance if you can.

While freelancing just give yourself plenty of time to complete projects with your limited schedule with school, maybe an hour or two a night and more time on the weekends. You don't have to volunteer that you're still in highschool. You should get an EIN number online from the IRS so your don't have to put your SSN on your W-9 forms that you'll need to give employers so they can send 1099 forms. Present work for incremental review and payment . . . don't undersell yourself . . . if you know what you're doing quote them a rate that's reasonable . . .

If you like development I would think about getting a CS degree as that might fit better with your current skill set . . . but college is a great time to explore other areas of interest. But being young you can become a killer rails developer during college and land a high salary right out of school . . . or get a degree in something you like and continue to develop your developer skill set as well so you'd have two options . . .

There is also the option to complete college and start your own business . . . start listening to StartUpsForTheRestOfUs.com.

As far as languages I'd focus on learning Rails (Ruby) and Laravel (PHP) and Angular. But learning any popular languages/frameworks is a plus.

Good luck . . . Youth is King.

justfane 11 years ago | |

Hey Saluki! Thank you. I'm focused on Laravel right now; i do have some AngularJS experience but it was for a project and it wouldn't correctly work for me on some aspects so i dropped it and went with a Laravel setup which worked much easier than the JS experience. I appreciate the advice it means a lot. I'll surely start listening to that website you mentioned; I'll start learning Ruby as you've mentioned it. :-)

Thank you again!

JSeymourATL 11 years ago |

You've got a lot on your plate right now-- multiple competing priorities, compounded by the family situation.

Strongly recommend reading> David Burns on Cognitive Therapy -- the writing exercises can help tremendously with the depression and your own personal development. The subject should also appeal to your Neuropsychology jones. > http://www.amazon.com/Feeling-Good-The-Mood-Therapy/dp/produ...

justfane 11 years ago | |

Hello JSeymourATL i appreciate the suggestion however i'm a deep follower of Burns :) in my room i have some of his charts taped onto my wall to remember how to think clearly. Thank you so much! :)

JSeymourATL 11 years ago | | |

Good on ya! Regarding your college conundrum, take a look at the military tuition assistance route-- it's been a smart play for a lot of guys. They need geeks more than warriors these days... > http://www.military.com/education/money-for-school/tuition-a...

PhrosTT 11 years ago |

You should start searching & applying for as many scholarships as you can.

Also, the '3pm to 3am' thing seems very unsettling to me. A great way to stay depressed is to be perpetually sleep deprived.

caw 11 years ago | |

Not only that, but '3pm to 3am' is also going to harm your chance for success at getting into the college(s) you want. You'll probably find your grades will start dropping with too much work and not enough sleep. If you're out at 3 I'm betting your school starts at like 7am.

Worst case scenario you fail out your senior year of high school and have to repeat, which I've seen happen to a friend of mine.

sarciszewski 11 years ago | | |

Right. 3 pm to 9 pm is much more reasonable. Give your brain a chance to rest.

dleskov 11 years ago |

Just specify on your freelancer's profiles that you are available part-time due to "other commitments". Not all prospects are looking for full-time workers.

justfane 11 years ago | |

Thank you for the suggestion :-)

hotnickels 11 years ago |

Sent you an email.

justfane 11 years ago | |

Received & Responded; thank you :)