Do teen programmers have a chance?

[goudabuddha]

Yeah, well, I ask this because my friend (numtel) and I are programmers and are in our teens and we want to know if our fellow programmers think that we could actually sell any of our stuph or get contracted out by someone to make stuph for them.

By the way, if you are looking for someone to write a program for ya, email or PM me. We're broke and we'll work for peanuts, literally!

[barrk]

If your work is any good you have a chance....but you also have to be willing to work hard and continue to learn fter you think you've learned it all! The worst part about working as a programmer is that you have to satisfy the users requirements whether they make sense or not...you have to be willing to listen to their idiotic ideas and still come up with a good application.

[denniswrenn]

Nobody's going to purchase anything you make if you continue to spell stuff like 'stuph', unless it's a promotion gimick.

If you spell correctly, people will hold you with more respect, and feel safer purchasing anything from you.

[numtel]

cool man! i'm hahahahahahah!!! having to much fun over here!!! hahahh

[CiberTHuG]

Originally posted by denniswrenn
Nobody's going to purchase anything you make if you continue to spell stuff like 'stuph', unless it's a promotion gimick.

If you spell correctly, people will hold you with more respect, and feel safer purchasing anything from you.

I'm with Dennis. Programmers are all over the place, and managers want little RAD designers, not necessarily good programmers. It doesn't matter how good you are, it matters how well you market yourself.

[Jamagei]

Originally posted by CiberTHuG


I'm with Dennis. Programmers are all over the place, and managers want little RAD designers, not necessarily good programmers. It doesn't matter how good you are, it matters how well you market yourself.

Utter boll*cks. What are you talking about 'Rad' Programmers. You ask any self respecting manager of most companies who they would rather have with them; A good programmer or someone who will sit around saying 'Cool... what's VB again?'

Hey man, take a chill pill, I can't program but that's cool, 'cos I look good and sound good, so someone is bound to pay me loadsa moola, yeah man.

If you have talent you will be hired. If you have personality and talent you will definatly be hired.

Marketing yourself works for marketing jobs.

[parksie]

I was under the impression they wanted people who could write the programs they wanted A programmer should be familiar with many types of program, including but not limited to RAD. In fact most programs are non-RAD (anything made using the API).

[CiberTHuG]

Originally posted by Jamagei
Utter boll*cks. What are you talking about 'Rad' Programmers. You ask any self respecting manager of most companies who they would rather have with them; A good programmer or someone who will sit around saying 'Cool... what's VB again?'

Hey man, take a chill pill, I can't program but that's cool, 'cos I look good and sound good, so someone is bound to pay me loadsa moola, yeah man.

If you have talent you will be hired. If you have personality and talent you will definatly be hired.

Marketing yourself works for marketing jobs.

*rotflmfao*

No, RAD as in Rapid Application Development.

In other words, it doesn't matter if you know the intracicies of OO, arcane C++, and assembly. They want VB.

There are some Java jobs to be had, and there are some mainframe side jobs (Rexx, JCL, C++), but most managers don't care about good, slim, updatable product that can become an institution, they just want RAD. Something that can be thrown away in a few years because we've developed an entirely new product.

[SteveCRM]

GOOD NEWS! I just got my towns newspaper. As a teen you may not be able to get a great programming job, but just try to do your best to get your name out. About that newspaper. My high school (which I attend(was too young for this though)) just placed 5th in the world in a computer competition! NOW THATS GETTING YOUR NAME OUT! Just volunteer as a computer counselor at a camp, or do competitions like these kids in my school. Also you could get a job at a computer store....maybe have them get your name out. Who knows what can happen. Good LucK!

[MadWorm]

Teen programmers might not like this idea very much but I'd say get a degree.

Anyone can program, but to write good software you need to know a lot. My uni course started with a pile of sand and we built a basic PC, OS and a language to make it do something useful. You need this level of knowledge to get the best from your hardware. The corporate world demands a lot of skills thesedays, including reasonable literacy standards, an understanding of quality assurance procedures and a good understanding of corporate machinations so you hit the ground running. I think designing a correctly normalised database would be difficult for a lot of teen programmers.

I don't want to be a wet blanket but I firmly believe a degree is necessary.

Failing that get a good suit, good haircut and go hard. IT is also about image, at least sell yourself well.

[SteveCRM]

I think college is a must. It doesn't matter how good you are, you need to be an all around good student in school

[tumblingdown]

Originally posted by MadWorm
...My uni course started with a pile of sand and we built a basic sand castle.

Originally posted by MadWorm
You need this level of knowledge to get the best from your hardware.

*ahem* *bollocks*

Originally posted by MadWorm
The corporate world demands a lot of skills thesedays, including reasonable literacy standards, an understanding of quality assurance procedures and a good understanding of corporate machinations so you hit the ground running.

*ahem* *business anaylst*

Originally posted by MadWorm
I think designing a correctly normalised database would be difficult for a lot of teen programmers.

There's hope for them yet, then.



td.

[goudabuddha]

Well, thank you all for your input, but I have a more specific question. I'm not even 14 yet, but my programming knowledge is more than enough for me to be able to turn out good software. What I want to know is do you think that a corporation would even take me seriously, even if the software that I offered them was better than any other offer they had? I've found that I'm often laughed at (figuratively speaking) because of my age, not my programming ability. Frankly, it pisses me off.

[Mark Sreeves]

The Darling brothers (Codemasters) started programming and selling software in their teens and are now multi millionaires.

They started a few years ago mind you when the personal computing world was in its early stages - a case of being the right age at the right time.

I don't think the world is ready for another BMX Simulator yet!

You say you are a good programmer but that's your opinion, whereas every one on the forum is aware of Kumaraguru Gajarajan's (Active) abilities and I feel that sort of talent WILL be noticed.

If you want companies to take you seriously you'll need to have your abilities quantified i.e. paper qualifications.

[Gaffer]

Originally posted by goudabuddha
Well, thank you all for your input, but I have a more specific question. I'm not even 14 yet, but my programming knowledge is more than enough for me to be able to turn out good software. What I want to know is do you think that a corporation would even take me seriously, even if the software that I offered them was better than any other offer they had? I've found that I'm often laughed at (figuratively speaking) because of my age, not my programming ability. Frankly, it pisses me off.

Don't stress about it!!!! You got years for that yet...

[parksie]

At 14 you have a lot more useful things to spend your time doing. Trust me, I didn't think so, but I'm bloody glad I did A-Levels. I have learnt a huge amount that despite not being specific to programming, is still good general knowledge (plus that integration by parts rocks ).

I've just got a job for next year (gap year so low pay ) in the IT department of a printing company in Cradley. Spend a couple of hours in the morning sorting out problems across the company with broken mice, monitors, that sort of support thing, and then program the rest of the day. Depending on if I impress them then I'm guaranteed a proper job afterwards, negating the need to go to Uni.

[Cander]

Gaffer turned into the Nature Boy suddenly

Tip for young programmers. Keep up with growing and new programming technologies. Dont get the attitude many older programmers get these days and be so uptight about new changes to a language for the better and refuse to learn it.

[Inimicum]

I'm not 14 (in college now)but I'd like to think that you would find things more entertaining than programming, But if you do want it bad enough, and think you could pull it off, great. Only you should look around locally at some buisinesses possibly one of your parents, and see if they need any type of software that may make their lives easier. then do it, and give it to them for free. tell them to just try it. and if it is any good, they will more than likely start to take you seriously. and possibly come back to you with modifications that they would like to see. then start talking about some type of payment, may it be only 5 bucks an hour. I'm not sure what type of a place you live in but I did similar stuff when I was in highschool, only I'm more of a hardware person. I worked at staples, and when ever someone would come in looking for ethernet cabling I would politely ask what it was for, most of them were getting cable modems, or dsl and needed to set up networking stuff, so I would say "I'm your man if you need help" and got a pretty good name out, people started coming in to staples asking for me specificly, and I charged $25 an hour. Then I got a really great gig installing a complete network at a small business, we brought the server and everything, did all the wiring. This is also the place I'm currently employee'd maintaining everything. it's only a 30 computer network but it pays well for a college student. and will be great on a resume.

[Gaffer]

Originally posted by Cander
Gaffer turned into the Nature Boy suddenly

Tip for young programmers. Keep up with growing and new programming technologies. Dont get the attitude many older programmers get these days and be so uptight about new changes to a language for the better and refuse to learn it.

Nature boy or nurture boy - I'm flexible with both titles

You're right of course about changing and adapting with languages. What I can't grasp is the rush man. Cmon, you got a 5-6 year window to make your fu<k-ups. Get drunk, kiss girls and boys, get caught smoking pot in the bike sheds - you know where I'm coming from? Start stressing about how you're going to get noticed, or get into a particular market etc as an early teen, and your' going to be heart-attack material by the time your 30. Chill boys....

[Megatron]

Goudabuddha,

It doesn't matter how old you are, it matters how good you are. If you are an exceptional programmer, and you really stand out among the rest, you should be able to get a job in no time. I remember I got my first programming job when I was around 15 or 16.

[Jethro]

Every one had to start somewhere to the road of utter chaos on planet digital.

If you want to do your own thing, rather than work for a Boss, then find something people need. Maybe you have an uncle or something that needs a program written to help out with the milk round or something. Do it for nothing, then get a good reference from the person, and contact every company/software house in your area with your resume.

We just employed a guy who did exactly that, he should actually be productive within a couple of months And he is Eighteen with an attitude..............major problem NO BUSINESS EXPIERANCE.

[JungleMan]

Originally posted by goudabuddha
Well, thank you all for your input, but I have a more specific question. I'm not even 14 yet, but my programming knowledge is more than enough for me to be able to turn out good software. What I want to know is do you think that a corporation would even take me seriously, even if the software that I offered them was better than any other offer they had? I've found that I'm often laughed at (figuratively speaking) because of my age, not my programming ability. Frankly, it pisses me off.

You're way ahead of everyone! I'm 15 and I probably don't know half the crap you know! Neither does anyone in my school! (Although it's an awfuly good inside joke in school to do Dim ***** as Long when only like 3 people get it. Heh.)

I'm making a file sharing network, hey if Shawn Fanning did it why can't I?

Don't be afraid to put out any of your work on the Internet. or something..even if people aren't going to hire you (maybe), just keep learning and learning more until you're old enough to get out there and work with a big company. If you are this good now imagine how great you'll be in a few years!

Don't worry about getting hired now, just have fun and program on the side when you're bored. In a few years you can get a great job as an expert VB programmer.

[Ianpbaker]

I started profesionally when I was 20, and now have nearly 3 years of commercial expieirence. my advice is to start small, get some experince and slowly build your way up, and in no time at all you will be able to have gaffer's job, as he is ****e anyway

[Gaffer]

Damn, my secret's out


heheheh