Ask HN: What to learn over the summer?

4 points by martin_e 9y ago ↗ HN

Continuing to look for ideas on what to advise my university-bound kid (going for CS) to focus on learning over the summer. The idea is to provide him with a way to have access to work above minimum wage by investing the summer coding.

In the context of a young person starting out, which of the various full stack technologies would provide the most opportunities and earning potential (part time/gig type work)?

I use Python/Django but not sure this would be the best given the stated goals. From a CS perspective it would probably be best for him to get really good at Python. Maybe that's reason enough to take that path?

Is there a nice (and reasonably lucrative) Wordpress-centric work ecosystem out there? Would that be a good thing to focus on rather than traditional full stack development? Or is WP development dominated by offshore programmers?

2 comments

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1ba9115454 9y ago ↗

Perhaps turn it around a bit and give him a goal such as create a small online business and let him/her choose the tools.

So then he gets the full stack technology wise but also a look at the startup stack i.e. Marketing, Traffic, Sales, Saas and customer support.

Arcten 9y ago ↗

The standard advice given to incoming CS students at my university who ask how they should prepare over the summer is typically "don't do any studying at all", in the sense that it is rare to have so much free time and it is nice to enjoy it before going into the constant school-internship cycle for four years. Of course, this is a personal choice, but I regret not keeping this more in mind before I started college.