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How can a teenager get a programming job over the summer?

18 points by codeforfood ↗ HN
I am a high school senior who is very talented at programming (at least if I say so myself). In my junior year I was a USACO finalist, so I know my way around algorithms. I know how to program in Java, Python, C++. I have successfully wrote a website in Django in the past. I am now looking for a job for the summer. I have looked at Rent A Coder but it seems inefficient: most of the time is spent on hunting down a manageable project and discussing the problem with the bidder, who usually don't even understand the problem! Does anyone have any tips on how to find a job? I am not looking for high pay, but it should be interesting.

27 comments

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DaniFong
One good way for teenagers to break into a job is to start contributing to an open source project. Many in the community are old hands in a variety of different companies and organizations. They can open doors for you.

Also, try tapping into the resources around USACO. Rob and the others have many links, and many USACO alums have become quite prominent. Some really like to help young people out.

Rent A Coder and TopCoder design and development, eLance, and others, are all pretty much a waste of time. They are a market for lemons. You can learn far more in different environments.

The ideal situation? You're given a project with an enormous jump in responsibility, you get to work on something interesting and challenging, you get to work with people you can really learn from, and you get to see a project you're proud of through to completion.

If you'd like to, feel free to contact me -- details are in my user profile.

codeforfood
"Rob and the others have many links, and many USACO alums have become quite prominent. Some really like to help young people out.Rob and the others have many links, and many USACO alums have become quite prominent. Some really like to help young people out."

You seem to know quite a bit about USACO. Are you a USACO alum yourself?

DaniFong
No, but I've been an observer in a few of the competitions, and played through much of the training set when I used to play TopCoder.
kobs
It might be too late to get an internship at a large company, but there are probably startups and other small companies that would love to have interns.

It doesn't hurt to find companies you're interested in an shoot them an e-mail inquiring about a summer position.

This worked for me when I e-mailed a couple of startups, one of which was Justin.tv. Even though they weren't specifically targeting interns, I e-mailed them anyway, with a solution to their pre-interview programming problem.

Now I'm in San Francisco =).

goofygrin
This is what I was going to recommend, so +1

I got my first "programming" job as an intern at Cessna (in 1996). The job sucked (Fortran on a mainframe), but it was awesome resume fodder for the next few years.

Plus I can say that I worked in Fortran ;)

tjr
I have looked at Rent A Coder but it seems inefficient: most of the time is spent on hunting down a manageable project and discussing the problem with the bidder, who usually don't even understand the problem!

Hmm, actually, being able to turn the vague requirements of an uninformed customer into a usable end product that meets their needs is a great skill to have. But I agree that Rent-a-Coder might not be the best way to spend your time.

unalone
Internships.

I go an intern job over at Aviary for this summer, and I'm thrilled. Though I doubt it's a coding job, to be sure... I'm much more an end-user person. Still. I'm sure that if you're a programmer then being an intern is the way to go.

tptacek
Are you in Chicago? We'd pick you up as a paid intern. There are lots of other companies like us in other cities.
codeforfood
Wow, matasano! I read your blog and I had no idea you were on HN! Unfortunately I live in New York.
tptacek
Our HQ is in Manhattan. =)
mdakin
Rent A Coder is a waste of time if you're in a part of the USA with some local high-tech companies you can work at in person.

I got my first UNIX system programing job back in HS in the days when there were lots of little local companies reselling T1 and then later T3 connections using modem pools.

I emailed the CEO and asked for a job. He asked me to write him some perl scripts as a test. I did. He then asked me to come in and talk. I did and after some talking I was hired on the spot.

Find a local, small tech company, contact them and be ready for questions and an in-person interview. If you know your stuff and come across as sane in an interview you'll likely get a job as they know they'll be able pay you in Dew and chocolate covered espresso beans and you'll be happy. (I actually made great money for a HS student and you likely will too.)

Good luck!!!

jdale27
"I am not looking for high pay, but it should be interesting."

Do you live near a university? If so, check out their job listings, or just contact some professors (email is okay, but dropping in on their office hours or otherwise visiting them in person might work better). They don't have to be CS professors; the interesting programming jobs might actually be in other departments.

ibgeek
Agreed. I volunteered to build a simple web site for a biology professor. That was in 2005, and I've worked in the department every year since building bioinformatics and biological database applications. I'm currently working on a project to build a database cataloging short motifs in proteins and their functions. It's honestly been the best experience I could have ever hoped for.
initself
I'll hire you if you know Perl and love it.
jfornear
"...it seems inefficient: most of the time is spent on hunting down a manageable project and discussing the problem with the bidder, who usually don't even understand the problem!"

That is how freelance usually works unfortunately. Building a successful freelance business really depends more on how well you can build and maintain relationships with clients than on how talented a programmer you are. You have to learn to educate the client and communicate well.

If I were you, I would try and find a simple project that will allow you to ease your way into the business side of things. Maybe talk with your parents' friends who run small businesses to see if they would like a website?

Managing and educating clients was one thing I wish I would have understood better when I was a senior in high school. I thought I could just get an assignment and code away and get it back to them when I was done, and some of the clients were fine with that because they didn't know any better either.

Also try to be humble. I was cocky then mainly because I was making more money than all my friends. It's hard to learn in that mindset, and business/communication skills can really only be learned with experience.

davidw
I don't think he wants to be doing freelancing at that age, or even building simple web sites for small businesses. Learning is what he ought to aim for, and that means something like an internship at a small, cool company.
randy
If for some reason it isn't immediately obvious to you yet, the answer to your question is "Post this question on Hacker News."
technoguyrob
You mentioned Rent A Coder.

I used Rent A Coder for a bit, but their system is terrible. I now use eLance to freelance and it's MUCH better. I've already made $10k on the side with this, with a cumulative coding time of less than 100 hours. However, the searching might've taken 10 hours, as it's hard to find projects that are worth it (but once you hit one, it's jackpot).

Not to mention, I always do projects which involve some new framework/language I've never used or some task I've never tried, so I can learn as well as make money! It's so great. Some might call it irresponsible, but I do my homework before even starting the project, and we all know it doesn't matter what tools a great programmer is given.

P.S. I'm 17, but no one has to know that. ;-)

ecuzzillo
1. Make cool stuff. Examples of truly cool stuff include http://www.anybots.com and http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~adamwb/ (although stuff vastly less cool that that still counts as cool for purposes of finding a job)

2. Post it on your website in such a way that it is obvious that a) it is cool, and b) you are therefore the shit.

3. Cold-email (as opposed to cold-call) people you want to work for. If you have done 1 and 2 correctly, and the people you want to work for are in fact good people to work for, they will hire you.

It worked for me, and the stuff I made was hardly cool, and it was hardly well-posted on my website. I now have basically exactly the work situation I would define given complete freedom.

JMiao
http://www.thesixtyone.com/static/jobs/

we're very open to internship opps if there's a good fit (we've got one under our belt).

concerning open source (a great opportunity), you should consider contributing to the multiple database support project. not particularly sexy, but it's going to be a key element and a great learning opp as django spreads and matures.

tlrobinson
In high school I was always able to find people who needed basic websites coded up. Of course most of it will probably be boring static HTML and CSS type stuff.
pavelludiq
I live in a small town and the main industry here is coffee shops and that's the default summer job for the area. So my summers are usually boring. Its too hot to go outside(curs you SUV's), to boring to work and smoking pot isn't as cool as it was when i was 16 so im bored as hell. So i was thinking about starting a project on my own. The drawback is that there is no money in it, and being a bartender or a dish washer pays decently for the local standards. All of my friends are going to be studying(most of my friends are ambitious), or working this summer so i have only my pc and a few ideas.
humanlever
I shot an email to the CEO of a search engine marketing company in NYC I'm acquainted with last night letting him know about you, he said he'd be interested in learning more (his company is in the top 200 of the Inc. 5000).

If you're still looking, drop me a line at richard [dot] kenney [at] sun [dot] com.