Programming jobs for a young teen - Are they out there?

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Hello everyone. My name is Jake, and I am a 14 year old programmer.

Like most teenagers (and people of all ages for that matter), I have a need for a small income. I have been programming C++ for about two and a half years, and I would consider myself an intermediate level programmer. I am also familiar with Java and PHP, but C++ is my forte. I was wondering where I could find a small programming-related job for myself. I'm talking about a job that didn't necessarily pay much--maybe enough to cover the price of a smartphone plan (around $20-$40/month), but a job that would only require an hour or two of work per day, as I attend school.

If there are any jobs out there like this, please let me know!

Thanks for taking the time to read this! -Jake
closed account (3qX21hU5)
Gezz what is up with all the "Can I get a job at a young age?" and other related posts these past few weeks lol. I swear there have been like 5 of these so far. We are being invaded by young people!!! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!

As for a programming job I highly doubt you would be able to find one (Not to try and put you down or anything) that would be paid. The only option I can think of is maybe tutoring for a minor income. Though you would have to know the language you are tutoring pretty well, and to be blunt a lot of people will not want to be tutored by a 14 year old.

That is bout the only paid programming job for you at that age. Normal projects will require more of your time and they won't look at someone that young most likely.

My advice would be to concentrate on building up your portfolio instead of finding a job. Do opensource projects and make your own projects so you can have that experience when you do get older and are looking for a job in the industry. Because at your age you are very limited in paid job opportunities.
You could try some freelancing sites.
http://www.vworker.com/
http://www.elance.com/

EDIT: Why don't https links work?
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@Script Coder

Both of those websites require you to be over the age of 18. While I could theoretically lie about my age to join the website, I would strongly prefer not to do that.
Ask your friends' parents if they have some problems in their firms/companies that could be solved by a small amount of programming/scripting. Seriously. When I was at your age I did some plugins for a friend of my parents who was an architect. By enhancing his CAD program I got some money.
@J4ke sorry, I did not realise that you needed to be 18.
Oh well. I guess they are almost inexistent. I plan to get an internship somewhere as soon as I turn 16. There is a very good program for teens that will make this easy in my area.
closed account (3qX21hU5)
The advice I will give you is don't be in such a hurry to grow up and get a job. Be a kid while you can, because you will have 50+ years of working ahead of you so there is no need to rush into it and waste your childhood ;p. Gezz I'm only 23 and I already sound like my father.
closed account (D2w5Djzh)
Hey Jake. Contact me via e-mail arvi.alamaa@gmail.com. I have something for you.

Regards

Arvi
Problem is that in the United States labor laws are that you have to be 16 to get a job and all job hunting websites require you to be 18 (mainly because most credit card companies don't give you a card til you are 18, though that isn't iron clad). You'd be better off looking into trying to get a job in the mail room while building your skills and hopefully something opens up so you can get out of the entry level job.

Outside of that, open source projects, freelancing, etc. are the only ways you will build your resume portfolio up to be viable in the industry.
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Even though I strongly agree with Zereo, I'll assume that we aren't going to change your mind. In that case I want to mention that you literally won't find a real job anywhere that only takes up "an hour or two a day". Your best option at your age is to freelance. You don't need the money to live off of so stability isn't as important, any job you take is going to pay you crap wages anyway because you're young, you would be able to set your own hours and schedule, what's not to love? I'm not just talking out of nowhere either I ran a computer repair company while I was in high school and the three of us made better than pocket money. We actually had to file taxes my senior year and I don't mind saying that we probably should have filed in my junior year as well ;).
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because you will have 50+ years of working ahead of you so there is no need to rush into it and waste your childhood ;p. Gezz I'm only 23 and I already sound like my father.



21 and I learned this lesson the hard way :P


edit: relevant article for the older members of the board :P
http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130422020049-8451-the-tech-industry-s-darkest-secret-it-s-all-about-age
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Well that article makes me glad I gave up on a career in game programming. No sooner would I get in and then be ready to be put out to pasture. Oh well, guess being a hobbyist game programmer isn't that bad. Middle age is considered by a lot to start at the age of 40 so I have 8 years before I'm middle aged as I will turn 32 this year.
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closed account (3qX21hU5)
This isn't aimed at you BHX just the article in general.

But personally I think anyone that gives up on a career choice just because a article says there is a chance you won't get as good of job because you are older didn't really belong in that career in the first place. Because if you love what you do in your career it wouldn't matter in my opinion (Though there is a mindset now days to follow the money).

There will always be good jobs for programmers and technical minded people I believe especially since it will only grow in the future as far as I can tell.

If you don't follow your dreams you will always live in regret.
Regarding the OP's original question the very straight answer is it doesn't actually matter how proficient you are with the language. Your overall development abilities and knowledge of methodologies is much more important.

When I interview potential developers only about 5-10% of the criteria we look at is their ability to develop in our chosen languages. You can easily learn a programming language, but it's the ability to design and develop solutions in an industry recognised way that is more important.

Sure, you can tell me the difference between using a reference and a pointer. But can you tell me what the Factory pattern is or what the advantages of using the Data Access Object pattern are when developing unit tests?

I also heavily factor in other abilities. Very good knowledge in Networking, Databases, Hardware, Storage, Operating Systems, Protocols and software (subversion, GIT, SSH).

For example, could you set up a Linux server that only allows SSH access via a private key? Then install Jenkins on it that has CMake support for our automated builds etc.

As I said, your ability to use C++ is 5-10% of the skill set required to be a professional developer. I'd spend your time contributing to Open Source projects as this looks very good on the CV. Working on team projects provides necessary experience that is highly valued.

Note: if you actually do have this level of knowledge they I may have some work available in the coming months that would be contracted. The work would be mostly learning software, doing minor enhancements and heaps of unit testing
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@Zaita: Want you want is a Network Admin. I don't know why someone would block PMs on this site, it 's more of a curtisy from twicker as we really don't have an issue with spam here.
@Computergeek01 I didn't say I expect my developers to be able to configure routers, subnets etc. I expect them to have enough of an understand of network protocols to be able to code a network application. Many large scale applications have a networking component. Not having an understanding of IP networks (TCP, UDP, ICMP etc) is not going to be beneficial if their is a bug or new functionality to write in the networking code.

Someones ability to design a solution by taking in to more considerations regarding the deployment platform than the person sitting beside them is always going to be the person getting the job.
Zereo wrote:
This isn't aimed at you BHX just the article in general.

Don't worry, I wasn't offended.
Zereo wrote:
But personally I think anyone that gives up on a career choice just because a article says there is a chance you won't get as good of job because you are older didn't really belong in that career in the first place. Because if you love what you do in your career it wouldn't matter in my opinion (Though there is a mindset now days to follow the money).

I agree, one shouldn't quit just because someone or something says to. Imagine if actors/actresses quit every time they got a bad review saying they should. We would only have a hand full of them to make movies or none at all.
Zereo wrote:
If you don't follow your dreams you will always live in regret.

I don't think people stop following their dreams. I just think that dreams change.

For example, I gave up on programming as a career because of my son. Wife and son are in wheelchairs (due to FSH Muscular Dystrophy). Son has had the worse time of it though. He had a trach put in because he has some sort of seizure that makes him stop breathing and now he can't talk any more. He had a feeding tube put in because he wasn't gaining weight. I was told to give up programming repeatedly, but never did, after all this I didn't really give up on programming or a career in it more than my dream changed to helping my son.
@BHXSpecter Personally even in ideal situations I would advise someone against becoming a game developer. I've worked with people who have come from the games industry and the working conditions are horrible. Low pay, long hours, very little reward and satisfaction.

One of the guys we hired was on a good game dev salary as a Snr Dev. He came to work in my team at just over market rate and this was a pay increase of 60% for him. The house he worked dropped from 60-80/week to 38. We were doing 3D real time graphics development for TV presentations
closed account (3qX21hU5)
Personally I would like to get into the financial programming (Heard it is one of the best paying fields for programmers also which is a bonus too). If not the financial field my second choice would be using my family connections to get into programming for 3D Printing with Stratasys or Redeye ;p.
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