Ask HN: How can I get a job in the tech industry out of high school? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How can I get a job in the tech industry out of high school?

11 pointsmatteotom10 comments

I am 18 years old and graduating high school in May. I think that I'm fairly technically competent: I can write code reasonably well and I have experience administrating Linux servers.

I am looking to either take a year off after high school to work, or at least find an internship for the summer. Where should I look? From my searching, it seems that many/most internships require applicants to at least be in college, and jobs require a degree. Does anybody know where to look for companies that will take interns or hire out of high school? (Extra points for something in the Seattle area.)

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I'm 17. I chose not to do my senior year and instead got a job at a software company. From my experience, the number of people looking for young programmers far exceeds the number of programmers period (in major cities).

The best way I've found is to create a niche for yourself in software. Wether that's ops, node web development, ruby development, ios, etc. Create projects in that niche and post them to GitHub.com.

Then look for companies in your city hiring. Most major cities have tech job boards/mailing lists. Email the recruiter (or found if their email is listed) and let them know you're looking for work.

If it's a new company, even better, since they're likely trying to scale their system, offer to come in and see if you could help them get their API off the ground.

Most important note as your age is build casual business relationships with the tech scene, and you will get job offers regardless.

Don't work for free, don't take unpaid internships, you shouldn't have to do that, and it's not worth it.

Side note: I think I may have met you at CodeDay Seattle. Small world.

It's possible. I've been to the last few.

I got an internship at a company in Bellevue while I was still in highschool. The key is to attend networking events and meet people in positions to hire you. Come off as impressive, either technically competent or showing interest/knowledge of the company's area of business.

Where around Seattle are you from?

So then my question becomes: which networking events should I attend?

And I'm from Ballard, but I have access to a car so anywhere in the Seattle area works for me.

Go to meetup.com. Look for events that seem interesting and prioritize ones that are company sponsored or have high profile people attending. Do research on the companies of these people, and go have conversations with them and make it seem like you can provide value to them.

The best thing about the tech industry is all it takes to prove your competence is a computer and an internet connection (which means your in luck). Now the trick to getting hired and forgoing all the university/degree requirements is to prove yourself with projects. Start coding. Not dilly-dallying, but coding all the time. Code to learn and post all your projects on Github. It's good to explore, but try to focus on completing 1 or 2 projects that you're proud of.

You'll not only be building your skills this way, but you'll also have something to talk about at interviews.

> From my searching, it seems that many/most internships require applicants to at least be in college, and jobs require a degree.

You can still ask. The first company I worked for was looking for a developer with a 4 year degree. I was still a high school junior. I contacted them and after an interview, they brought me on board as an intern for the summer.

Try to just phone different places and offer your services. Ask to speak to who's in charge of their computer systems. Bonus points if you actually check what they're running first and can engage them about it. "Hey, I noticed you aren't running the latest x on your server. I could help you keep that maintained." These days, you could probably use Google Maps and search for 'online' or 'store' or something generic and pick the geographic area of companies to target.

setup a profile on elance/odesk etc.

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