HN Explorer

Can I Get into Tech?

8 points by alexander2002 ↗ HN
Hi,I am really in a limbo right now.I am a college dropout due to personal circumstances(health issues).I am now a depressed 22 years old without solid skills that are typically expected of my age. I can go either do some odd jobs all my life but I feel like my calling is tech and SWE as this is the only thing that I am passionate about nowadays.

I have been learning coding for about 3 years on and off and now feel like I am ready to be an intern. You can review my some of projects below to advise me if I should persue finding a remote internship since they are pretty competitve and I feel like I have very low chances as I have a non-conventional background.

My github is https://github.com/Oreoro

I recently made a Chrome extension, pulished an npm package among other basic stuff(below) 1.https://simpletaskmanager.vercel.app 2.https://un-overwhelmed.vercel.app (Dont use this on mobile) 3.https://chatbots.streamlit.app Source code is on my github.

Now I know this is not fancy stuff but I am willing to learn from an internship(preferably remote).I just cant seem to have my door in anywhere since I dont have a college degree.

16 comments

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ametrau
You're 22 and asking if you can get into tech? Are you insane? Yes of course you can.
alexander2002
Im my humble view age is not absolute.A 22 years old in west will have better outlook on life as he can make more mistakes on average as compared to a 22 years old in Pakistan(my home country). Similarly,A teenager in west has a better future ahead than on average compared to their counterparts in other parts of the world creating a non-linear discrepcy in social/technical skills over time.
ametrau
Yeah that’s right but unrelated. Yes you can get into tech. Yes you can do basically anything at this point (I mean from the age perspective all other things being equal).
mixedump
Keep uplifting your skills. You'll generally benefit from more practice, no matter when you get the first gig.

Follow these steps:

- Go and find an open-source project on GitHub that you find appealing and that makes you motivated

- Learn how to contribute to it (read its contribution guide, project setup guide, etc.; dissect its code quality settings); this is important; you want to be a good and respectful citizen and not waste anyone's time with super subpar contribution attempts. An added benefit for doing things that way is that when someone is genuine and honest with their work and contributions, people can feel it and will be more likely to provide you support beyond regular, e.g. more thorough peer review feedback that you will learn from a lot.

- Find a small task you can do in the project. Usually, the readme suggests where to start.

- Once you start with the open source contributions, just keep contributing to open source permanently.

- Look for a job. You don't have to wait to start looking for the first job.

You can do it

VirusNewbie
Keep learning, it looks like you're on the right track. It says you're in Pakistan, so I don't know how difficult it will be to find work at your experience level, my guess is quite difficult. You may need to get another temporary job but that's OK.

If you keep leveling up, you'll be able to start doing some work somewhere to build up a portfolio and resume.

I agree with the other poster, find an existing, active, open source community that is interesting to you and start learning from it and eventually contributing.

alexander2002
Sucks to be in Pakistan atm due to political and economic unrest. Open source work sounds fun.Will look into it. Thanks!
VirusNewbie
One thing I've found important in life is to extend your time horizons. You obviously gotta have money to eat, and you should have some time and a tiny bit of money to enjoy life here and there, but focus on where you want to be in five years or even ten years.

If you can build a solid reputation as an expert in a handful of technologies you can get something called an O-1 Visa that can skip the line if you want to immigrate to america or somewhere. You can also get companies to make an exception for paying international people if you have a reputation.

You don't have to become the world's best Python programmer or something, you can specialize in niche technologies that have enough of a market. I'm sure this is not an easy path, and can take a long time, but my point is there are ways to make money in this industry through non traditional means of just going into an office in New York or London or something.

Good luck, keep building.

davidajackson
Nice, whatever you do, just don't stop.
Zelphyr
Came here to say this. If tech is really what you want to do, you'll find an opening eventually. Just don't quit trying!
thiago_fm
Keep building your stuff, but go back to college.

Find a cheap or online college to get a diploma and keep building. The market is tough right now, so it's not like you'd quickly find a position even with a BS in CS diploma.

Try to position yourself for the tech in high demand nowadays; it seems to be about AI, data, and not so much Web as before.

If you are from Pakistan and think this is limiting for you, you could look into improving yourself so you eventually find a job in Europe, but for that you likely need experience and that diploma. Don't hear people that say you absolutely don't need a diploma to succeed in tech.

While you might not need it, for some of your life goals you'll likely need it. And it will make it easier for you in the rest of your life.

It's a diploma that got me into Europe and that allowed me to build a life here.

If you feel like I can help you with some career guidance, feel free to email me.

sircastor
Skip the internship. There are some places that will want to do that but if you’ve got programming experience just apply for entry level jobs. You don’t have to work for a big player or a dedicated software shop.

I spent the first 15 years of my career without a bachelors degree. Some of it was at temp firms. It’s not great, but it’s a paycheck, and experience.

Also, having published an NPM package and a chrome extension, you’ve already done two things that I’ve not done in my 19 years in web development. Well done!