Ask HN: I'm an 18 year old programmer; How do I get a job?

Some minor points that I hope are helpful:

- Blog on your work, what you do, problems solved, lessons learned.

- Build a online resume or portfolio. Languages uses, screenshots, code samples

- Get a LinkedIn profile, and get people that you've worked for (or with) to write up a Recommendation.

When job hunting, ignore HR. Research the hell out of the company and find out who the manager/director is who'd have the main say in hiring you or not. Reach out to them directly and introduce yourself. Provide direct links to blog/online resume/portfolio and why you'd be a great fit.

In addition, if you are in a position to do so, offer to intern for free at a known company/design-shop/etc for a few months for experience. Insist on real work and not just making coffee.

Best of luck.

Think small, any place that is to small to have an HR department is too small to have a getting past HR department problem.

2nd have you actually had a getting past HR problem? Most job ads I have seen would consider 4 years professional programming experience the equivalent of a degree and should give you a shot at an entry level position. On the other hand they may be trying to type cast you as an embedded programmer and passing over you for that reason.

Just keep coding, it'll work out.

Your resume is all about experience. Some people care very much about what companies you work for, but as you're getting started, what projects you work on is the best you have.

Build a simple product and launch it. Find an itch to scratch, to the HTML/CSS, user signups, backend code. It's unlikely anyone will use it but it's great experience and it's something tangible that interviewers can look at.

Contribute to open source. What does your Github profile look like? How networked with other developers are you? The best job is the opening at your friend's company, where he can put in a good word for you.

Move to a tech hub. In Los Angeles both software companies I worked for hired 18 year olds at one point or another. (The last 18 year old I worked with was also quickly fired because he couldn't maturely handle the work, but that's a different discussion.)

Apply everywhere. Whether you are over-qualified, under-qualified, would need to relocate, etc. This phase of your career is largely a numbers game. Get your name out there, get good at writing a cover letter, interviewing, etc.

Intern at a funded startup.

1. They'll be more responsive.

2. If you do well, they'll keep you full time in most cases.

Make one.

* Create a portfolio of your work (some of which may have been created just to show off your skills)

* Establish your own personal brand online, under your real name, with a video of yourself talking about your services (this sets you apart from the Indian and Hungarian chop shops).

* Get incorporated.

Without a college degree, you need to target places who don't really have an HR department or where the technical folks are so revered that they can overrule HR (not easy). I would look for small software shops. Alternatively you can brand yourself as the wiz kid and freelance for small businesses. Either way, aim for small companies until you're older than the new-hire college grads.

I would definitely try to get more education. If you can't afford it or it is impractical, you should at least read some books on your own. I used to think I was fully educated at 18, but I learned a lot at the university. Even the stuff I already knew, I learned in a new and better way.

While it may still be difficult to get that interview without a formal education, this will at least make it easier once you get there.

(Two places to start: Introduction to Algorithms by Cormen et al and SCIP (available for free online))

It's already been said, but it bears repeating: Contribute to open source projects. Of the last 8 or so developers we've hired, half had open source contributions and it was definitely a plus. It says that you're willing to work to make things work, you're interested in coding for coding sake, and you actually do have experience you can point to.

Something that will help a little quicker is to have a portfolio. Show GOOD code that shows you know how to handle security vulnerabilities and have good design, as well as have coding standards that you adhere to. Ideally, the code should be the same as the job you are applying for, but good code speaks for itself no matter the job.

Ace the interview. Know what they're talking about when they ask about design patterns and be able to name and recognize them, etc etc. The more questions you answer quickly and confidently, the better.

It depends on a lot of things, like for example -- in what kind of company do you want to work and on what kind of things do you want to work.

I'm a dropout and I believe a portfolio is really helpful. Get a showcase together of some of the stuff that you've built and show that you're passionate about what you do. Especially because it's your first job you're going to have to be creative to get past HR if you're targeting a bigger company. Another thing you can try is to see if you can get an internship in a company. This way you can check whether you actually are good enough and there is a high possibility that you'll be hired if you do a good job.

Also, get a LinkedIn profile up with accurate information.

You can't win the paper resume game, so skip it. Make a portfolio, list your prices and services upfront, blog actively, and respond to gigs postings on Craigslist.

You'll get work if you keep at it. Like all sales, its a numbers game.

I got my first "real" full time coding job at the age of 21 (4 years ago). I landed it without any education. Unfortunately, I got crap for pay compared to others...I started at $28,000 a year. The good thing was, I was living with my mom in SC with a very low cost-of-living so it was a lot of money at the time.

Enough about me...for you, all I can tell you is how I personally did it. I created a nice portfolio of all the work I had done over the previous years. I then applied to so many jobs that I became a pro at writing resumes and cover letters custom-tailored to the companies I was applying to. The one's that I heard back from were the small companies, with 5 or less employees on average. The company that hired me was 3 people before I got there. Start small.

You've already got some experience which will help a lot. What I've found (and what worked for me about 10 years ago when I was almost in your exact position) was that the easiest way to get a gig programming is to find a good company that employs programmers and get a job doing something computer related there. I started in tech support which is as good a place as any. Work your ass off. Be as good at your job as you possibly can be. You may notice some opportunities for automation (they almost always exist). Use whatever tools you have available to fill the need you see - a lot of my early work was excel macros. Often times the programmers are too busy to fix one-off and niche problems. The idea is to develop a reputation as someone who can solve problems. Once you're hired, moving around inside of a company is much easier. Be your own evangelist. Make it clear you are good at programming and you want to do more of it. If management has a clue, they'll let you program, at least part time - but likely won't give you a raise... if you really love it - stick with it and get the experience, which is what really matters. You can always job hop once you've got experience.

Oh - and go to school - getting a CS degree will help you in ways you can't even understand. It took me 8 years to get mine because I worked full time (as a programmer) the entire time I was in school - still worth it - and since I was making money I was left with very little debt when it was all said and done.

Make a contribution to an open source project. Post code on github.

Sigh. When will employers (even good ones?) realize that the value of a developer is primarily in their approach and talent rather than years of experience?

If you're not opposed to relocating to the DC area and working primarily on the JVM, send your resume my way (gmail, luke dot vanderhart). We're a consulting company hiring junior developers. You'll have the chance to work on some pretty high-end government projects, and if you're worth it you will advance nicely in the company.

Apply to work at smaller companies.Most big companies have to follow "hiring guidlines" and the like, but if you apply to startups and companies with sub-100 people, they will often over look things like a college degree for prior work experience and general bad-assery.

Also, get active in open-source projects. Submitting patches to projects you love on github is a really easy way to get yourself noticed.

Where are you located? I'm trying to hire a junior-level web developer in DC. Send me a message if you're interested. Seriously.

Anyway, a few things:

- You're not going to get a reply from many/most jobs you apply for. This isn't necessarily you. It's just the way it is.

- This is just a hunch, but I think you're going to have more luck with smaller companies and startups than with big companies that filter all applicants through an HR department first.

- Don't sell yourself short. I got tons of applicants with Comp Sci degrees who are totally clueless. I would consider someone who is smart but lacks a college degree without any hesitation. Apply for jobs even if the requirements say "BS Degree."

- Send a letter/resume to companies you'd really, really like to work for

If you've not got much experience within an industry, it's really easy to overestimate the average skill level of others in that industry.

It sounds like your problem isn't your lack of qualifications or your lack of connections; but the fact that while you have identified that connections can be a good way to get work, you (appear) to have decided not to make the effort to start building them.

Do an internship at a startup & read/write loads of open source code. Worked for me (I'm 20, without a degree).

I taught myself to program and got my first programming job during the dot com bust. I've since become a manager and have done a lot of hiring so I can speak to both sides.

First, don't worry about not being as good as "us". Most likely we're not applying to the same job as you, and most likely we're not looking for a job at all. Most resumes I get, and interviewees I interview are absolutely awful. The bar really isn't very high, you just have to get to the phone screen.

So how do you do that? Build something real and be able to talk about it. You need to be able to point to something and say "I made that". It can be open source or it can be your own website, a free mac app, iphone game, whatever. Then, focus your applications to job postings that align with your skills and background, and write a cover letter about the thing you built. The cover letter will help the reviewer overcome the lack of experience on your resume. Most job postings ask for someone with n years of experience. Ignore that, just ensure that they are looking for a junior person so you don't apply when they are really looking for a senior person.

Focus on smaller companies. Big companies have HR departments that review resumes and they primarily look for x years of experience with J2EE blah blah blah.

Be willing to take less money than someone with experience if all else fails. There are a ton of people out there that want to hire a programmer, but don't want to pay $70k for a junior developer. If all else fails, go to one of these places and make 40k or whatever, and within a year you'll have job experience on your resume and you can easily get a new job for more money.

Where are you? What are you looking for? Do you have code samples somewhere?

I might be old fashioned, but if you want a career as a software engineer, why not attend college for a degree in computer science? When you are done, you'll likely be heavily recruited and face a much less hostile employment environment.

Despite what some say, college is good for most people and will help round you out as a contributing member of society. I put myself through college as a part time developer and had more fun than I can remember.

If you have good experience, it should be doable. I got my first coding summer job at 16 working for a small startup.

Some tips:

* If you don't have quality code on GitHub, change that. Fork something that interests you, hack together your own small-but-cool project, etc.

* If you're not in a tech hotspot (the Valley would be best), consider moving. Most companies want full-time workers to be on-site. It's probably better if you can move now, that's probably better, but you should definitely be willing to apply to jobs in the Bay Area and move if you get one.

* Startups that are pretty early in their lifespan are usually pretty open to hiring people without degrees. Apply to a bunch of them. Do the YCommonApp[1]. Apply to every python job at on HN's jobs page[2]. Look at other job boards that are heavy on startup jobs--Github[3], Startuply[4], etc. We're in a field with a huge demand for labor. If you're capable and apply to enough places, you will find something.

* Network--a lot of people get jobs through acquaintances. Even if you live somewhere lame, networking is still quite possible. If you fork a project and provide a string of quality patches, you can easily build a rapport with the maintainer. If the maintainer knows a lot of other people in the Python community, he probably always knows at least one person who's looking for a good Python hacker.

* Put your email in your HN profile. There are probably several people who will see this thread and want to shoot you an email with opportunities.

1: http://ycommonapp.com/

2: http://news.ycombinator.com/jobs

3: http://jobs.github.com

4: http://startuply.com/

Unless you are in a great need of cash, I will strongly advise you to go to college. Few years of college will do you better that just get you a degree.

When you are 18yo school is really important, not to be paternalistic here, you have all the time to really figure out what you want to be in life. If you were founding a startup with friends I would say go for it; if you parents support you I will say go to college please.

I dropped out at 18 to work at a startup. I got the gig through a co-op placement via my high-school. It was pretty sweet.

I did eventually finish high-school, but I never went on to university or college for computer science. Things have been good without it: I'm a firm believer that anything you want to know you can learn on your own (the compiler is a good TA and the Internet a great teacher). However, in todays rat-race I'm kicking myself in the ass. Five years of experience and no one will believe that I can actually program anything. Even the most mundane programming jobs building PHP websites will probably ask for a CS degree.

It's an uphill battle if you want to go against the mainstream. It can build character if you're up for it, but be prepared to lose a number of battles. I only recommend it if you're comfortable being independent.

But I also know now that you have no idea what you want when you're 18. You'll change your mind in a few years no doubt. I recommend just doing what you want and getting on with life. Maybe even forget the career thing and just focus on partying or travelling or something.

get a suit, try to look a little older, and apply to any 'contractor' or temp position in a big company.

i will tell you. it doesn't even matter if you can read.

some 3 people show up to interviews, one get hired regardless of anything.

oh and it also doesn't matter if the contract is for some 2 or 3 months. you will be there for at least 2 years if you want to.