13 year old hacker, looking for an occupation or job.
Hey, my names Daniel, im 13 and was wondering... where can i use my skills for good? Perhaps a job in Sydney, Ausralia that will take me seriously. I've currently opened up a business (www.danielswebsites.com) where i make websites for people. Made bout $2000 so far, only been 4 months. I base my sites on code but made mine on wordpress (too lazy). I've hacked into my school computer which contained 'Sophos', 'Zenworks' and 'Italc' with 24/7 IT pro's keeping us out of trouble. I hacked into it with only linux and a USB stick, became admin and soon enough, had every shool network password (even staff one). Is there someway I can occupy myself with LEGAL hacking or a paid job? I'm currently learning my second programming language (C++) and I know HTML and CSS. I love computers! Anyone?
19 comments
[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 44.9 ms ] threadHere's why: No matter what you do, no matter how good you are, people will take you more serious when you are a little older. Does that mean you should stop asking for jobs? Hell no! But use your in between time to develop skills that might help you later on. Explore some hardware hacking and electronics (start with Arduino, continue with building a synthesizer or something), make sure to have the basics covered: C++, Javascript, Python and/or Ruby, PHP etc. Then continue with something like Clojure, just to get an even better understanding. When it comes to real jobs: Start with an internship at a start-up or a webdesign agency. It's way easier to get in and you will most likely find people who are willing to support you, when they discover your talent. Continue from there.
Oh, and don't forget to party as hard as you can.
I checked out your website. There's still plenty you can learn. Like cross-browser compatibility. The search bar is broken on firefox 7. Increase the quality of your services, charge more, live a good life till you're old enough to fit into a big company!
You may want to consider alternative sources of revenue such as odesk, etc. Contracting work and more. But sadly, don't look for a job for reasons mentioned above. If they find out that you're too young and don't want to work with you, move on. Don't dwell on them.
Go to networking conferences. Establish a social reputation for what you do. Do NOT rely on your age to help you. Lie if you have to and pretend to be that 'age' from then on. No one will demand ID.
Protip: Reiterate many times on how to lie about your age. Maybe pretend that you're short.
/sydneysider too
Then provisioning and maintaining any popular sites would be your job.
You'd build an impressive portfolio and have a bunch of assets that you could sell or charge for if you ever wanted to.
Inventing something that didn't exist before and helping it to gain popularity can be pretty exciting as you see the progress over a longer term as opposed to building a site and handing it over once it's done.
Start a couple of sites of your own, you'll find out there's more to learn than just programming languages.
You can get paid lots of money for the opportunity to learn a whole lot more working with companies to test their networks, computers and webservers against attacks. Set up a side business just like you have with DanielsWebsites.com, to focus on vulnerabilities. The goal is to not be a small player in a huge pond of similar businesses. Avoid becoming a commodity.
Aside from technology learning, continue working on your English writing and reading skills, maths and socialization skills (meet and keep the right friends). Develop good habits of not being content or lazy. Always move forward and up, give your body to relax, rest and recharge. Give up wordpress (you're right, its too easy) and challenge yourself constantly, learn Rails or Python and see a new idea into reality.
Just think about what you would want (maybe for a hobby or interest) or what other users would want, build and either sell it or in the more hacker style give it away for free.
Anyway, if you've got a mac (or hackintosh...) and an iphone or itouch, you could make iphone games?
Make sure you hit up the local meetup scene. RORO, SydJS, and Cocoaheads are a good start.