Ask HN: I'm 15 and am looking for a long-term gig | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: I'm 15 and am looking for a long-term gig

18 pointsgoshakkk10 comments

Hey there,

I'm a 15 yo passionate developer. My primary interest is in Ruby, Rails, NoSQL (Redis, MongoDB), modern web (HTML5/CSS3, new standards), semantic web. I'm also in to discovering new things, whenever it is Scala, Clojure, Erlang/Elixir, or anything else.

I've also been freelancing for past 3 month (my rates are quite good, varies on the project, $60-80 a hour) but currently I'm left with no projects. Any freelance gig posting I'm facing is either somewhat boring, uninteresting or something really low paying (like $8/hr). As the result, I'm looking for a long-term exciting freelancing gig or something like a remote "job".

My goals are to participate in building of the awesome app (preferably back end stuff) and enlarging of my experience. Money isn't primary for me, tho I'm not willing to work for $8/hr.

Anyone would like to hire me for the project?

Some of my background:

* started coding at the age of 9 using PHP, soon migrated to Python, then to Ruby

* am not into open source yet (though I'd very like to)

* experience in Ruby

* passion to technology and new stuff

* desire to build great things

Thanks.

If you'll permit me to share some wisdom with you,

I'm a bit older than you (20, which could be mountains by your reckoning). I do consulting now in sunny San Francisco and am altogether very satisfied with my pay, station in life and the work I've accomplished hitherto. I'd like to think this gives me some ground to speak on.

I was once in your shoes, given my lack of any sort of advanced age, I was wholly without opportunity. I endeavored in various fruitless directions before my first real financial success (inasmuch as a 14 year old can be financially successful). The biggest bump to my career (also all-around credibility) was the first open source project I ever did ( http://zv.github.com/work/swiftcrack/ ).

It may be true that it was only able to attract a small number (19,000 downloads) of largely Japanese fans, but by Jove, they were rabid. When all was said and done, I made around $5,000 shooting the shit about wireless security to people interested in my work (forgive my language). I'm firmly confident that none of them had the remotest clue I was 14. I would do something like this if I found myself in your shoes (like maybe become an expert of NoSQL databases by working on the hit new database thats sweeping the land called Artifact??? zv.github.com/artifact ).

Hey, I think you got inspired by the (similar) thread I posted (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4079567). It's great to see someone who shares my interests. While I don't have any jobs to offer, I can tell you this: contributing to open source software is one of the best ways to gain experience. (How about contributing to RoR?)

Still, you could get in touch with me - I have some projects that I might need some help with (though I probably can't afford help right now.) If nothing else, we could at least chat for a while :)

Hi, yeah, I was inspired by your thread :)

Sure, let's chat. What is your Skype handle/email?

<username> at gmail.com or me at <username>.com

Skype's the same.

Sent you a request on Skype. I would like to speak to you about possible project..

I'm working on a startup that's joining a competitive accelerator program next month--though, we won't be able to pay you $60-80/hr, we can figure something out.

Shoot me an email if you're interested, shrig94@gmail.com

I'm a 17-year-old passionate designer and the founder of Viatask. I've learned a lot and would definitely love to help out other teenagers. Feel free to contact me (Twitter: @_shahedk or Email: shahed [at] viatask.com)

You're the kid from that teen entrepreneur contest with the taskrabbit clone! You're site is well designed though, I'll give you that.

Hey, I just turned 16 and I am in a similar position. I'm @asselinpaul on Twitter. I'd like to talk to you about your previous jobs ;) If you don't have Twitter, my email is: 'pa.asselin@gmail.com'

Can we see any examples of your work?

Email yes@nofavorite.com

Reply on news.ycombinator.com