Ask HN: Would you hire an 18 year-old front end developer? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Would you hire an 18 year-old front end developer?

10 pointsthebigone12 comments

Hi HN,

I'm 18 years old front-end developer from small county called Slovenia. I'm seeking for new customers because in Slovenia is very hard to find any work.

I love to work with Photoshop and Sublime Text editor. My passion is HTML, CSS3 and responsive design. I know some basic Javascript too.

Screenshots of my work:

- http://i.imgur.com/yv59AxJ.jpg

- http://i.imgur.com/xGibpfo.png

- http://i.imgur.com/jYrkur0.png

- http://i.imgur.com/hLJCOOe.png

- http://i.imgur.com/H90epkH.jpg

- http://i.imgur.com/DJOOP2s.jpg

- http://i.imgur.com/uH0Cp8k.png

- http://i.imgur.com/Dg8wDUp.jpg

- http://i.imgur.com/0bZrRtP.jpg

So, would you hire me for your next project? Why not? Here is my email address: vidakovicmiha1@gmail.com

View on HN

How in the world did this get to the front page? This isn't a question for discussion, it's a solicitation for work.

I wrote a more socially-acceptable comment below but unfortunately I have to agree with you, that's pretty much what this is.

You're too kind :). Maybe I'm too bitter. In either event, I just hope these types of posts don't become the norm as they aren't interesting. Hopefully the net positive from this is that op takes your good advice rather than spamming others for work.

I sometime answer with something like this: -- There is an official "Who is hiring?"/"Freelancer?" monthly post the first day of each month. They are popular and you should post there. It was only 5 days ago. Last editions:

Who is hiring? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7970405 (97 points, 5 days ago, 205 comments)

Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7970372 (75 points, 5 days ago, 121 comments)

I think you should start a personal website with a clean, well-written portfolio of your work. Also maybe put up some of your work on GitHub so people can actually look at your code. Your work looks pretty good but in those screenshots it's a bit hard to see how much you care about detail, hence it might be better to put it live somewhere.

In addition to this, I think you really needn't mention your age when looking for work. Try and make sure people will hire you no matter what age you are, ignore that factor as I personally think it's quite irrelevant.

I had my portfolio website but recently i had some problems with it. Here is re-upload of it: http://apartments-mlinar.com/vidakovic/

And here is my most recent project: http://apartments-mlinar.com/simplicy/

Context: I've been building web sites and applications since the mid-90s and I'm currently managing a team of 15 web application engineers at PayPal.

First, a little honesty: in 2014, it's going to be extremely difficult to get a "developer" job with only "basic Javascript" knowledge. It's not that HTML and CSS are bad skills. Rather, in today's market, together they do not constitute enough technical skill to be an effective contributor to a development team. Given that, no, I would not hire you as a developer--at least not today.

Going further, you've shared screenshots of designs you've created. If you're looking for a developer position, I'd expect you to be sharing something like a GitHub link to code projects you've worked on. What you've shared resembles a design portfolio and I would treat it as such. Not that there's anything wrong with a design / developer hybrid (certainly many folks in web development began or continue to work that way). However, you haven't provided any evidence that you're actually capable of any sort of development.

I'm not saying any of this to be discouraging; you asked a question and I want to give you an honest answer. If you're truly interested in getting into the world of development, you should spend time with Javascript (or any other programming language that suits your fancy--JS just happens to be a natural fit for "front-end development"). Work on some projects, create a Github account to share your code, and start looking for an internship or junior level position to get some real work experience.

Good luck on your journey!

I do agree with you. Throwing in something with Bootstrap and basic Javascript can be enough to create some restaurant's website. But you won't be hired to work on a fancy project on hacker news.

If you want to be hired, either learn Javascript in depth (objects, constructors etc...), either learn a service side language. And in a few years try to learn both, it's not that hard to become "fullstack"

I don't have actual feedback, but when you post screenshots you should probably not post downscaled blurry versions.

Link to gallery with full size screenshots: http://imgur.com/a/48ZI5#0

Clickable screenshots: - http://i.imgur.com/yv59AxJ.jpg