Ask HN: I'm going to present technology jobs to 400 16yo,what should I tell them? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: I'm going to present technology jobs to 400 16yo,what should I tell them?

6 pointsgeekuillaume6 comments

Hello Everyone, At the end of the month, I will make a 20 minutes presentation to ~400 french high-schoolers about technology jobs (vast domain but it's more centered on computer science courses). I hope to catch the curiosity of as many as possible to investigate more about the misunderstood jobs in this domain.

I'm a web developer, so my first insight was to present them code and the creativity involved in it. I also want to tell them about entrepreneurship in the technologic domain.

If you were to give this presentation, what would you tell and show them?

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First, congratulations!

I would demystify the process of creation. Show them your wireframes, your pencil sketches, talk about the business v. creative push and pull. Make it interactive - break them into groups of 2-3 each for 5 min and show them Notch's time-lapse in the background on projector while you have them work on exercises in ideation - what would their game be? what would the levels, characters, and challenges be. They don't have to present - just get them comfortable with the first step of creation - putting it on 'scratch' paper.

If you have time, deconstruct Flappy Bird. The scrolling left to right background v. making the bird move. How the object detection is greatly simplified when you have only one coordinate to detect (y-bird and y-pipeTop/y-pipeBottom). How adding gravity to the bird (downward velocity) allows you to fly the bird.

"Making Metagun" by Notch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV-AFnCkRLY

"Creating Prelude of the Chambered" by Notch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcfFJ6pNEZk

You could center the presentation around the phrase Métro, boulot, dodo. Tell them their job isn't meant to be a daily grind.

Offer a new version of the phrase, that includes fun, creativity, personality, reward (both payment & job satisfaction) - a lifestyle that is interesting.

I would go along a spectrum of jobs showing examples.

In high school I thought tech was either fixing computers, building games or websites. I never thought about it being a skill I could use for myself outside of work. There are also a lot of jobs that don't require code (that can seem intimidating) that still require a problem solving mindset. From front end design/dev to writing scripts to automate tasks try to cover a range.

Give them the vocabulary to go and investigate jobs they didn't know were out there before.

My suggestion is not to show them code at all, to me the code is just the language we learn to solve problems. Like learning to speak another language, it doesn't change your message, just how you deliver it.

So instead I would present them with a few unique problems that Computer Science helps solve. Whether it is a web site problem, an Arduino or Rasberry Pi based small robot or something large that will catch their attention.

I think showing them how solving problems not only involves critical thinking but also creativity, a no-barriers thought process (e.g. no preconceived ideas on solving an issue), and how you can really impact the world with it. At least in my opinion and experience, kids like to be inspired and don't think in the terms of boundaries so showing them how Computer Science really lets us do that could leave a great impression.

I'd also take a number of slides and have a picture on each one of different things that Computer Science helps solve, e.g. Manufacturing Automation, Welding, Cars, Space travel, websites, communications etc. Make sure at least 2-3 are things they would have never understood were backed by programming, I think that impacts people.

I don't know how french high-schoolers may differ from the US, but my bet is they share most qualities. My son was inspired very much in this way when he was in middle school, and he jumped at the chance to join a technical program for high school.

Good luck and have fun, that is an awesome opportunity to help shape kids view of the world.

Something that might be relatable: show a few screenshots of Angry Birds, and talk about the different roles that went in to making it, such as UI programmers, physics programmers, project managers, designers, etc. That also gives you a great starting point for showing how "a programmer with a physics background" can build anything from games to spaceship software. You could also use Angry Birds as an example of entrepreneurship, both in the sense of "what would a minimum viable Angry Birds be?" and how it took several less popular game launches to get to that point.

Please do mention open source, the practical and idealistic aspects of it. It's fairly unusual in the world today and resonates with many non technical people.

It's one of the only careers where you can make a good wage without selling your soul these days.

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