Hi! Does anyone know of any tech startups or companies around silicon valley that are willing to accept qualified high school students for internships?
You're going to have to expand on that. If by "qualified high school student" you mean someone who has built at least one impressive and non-trivial project that real people are using and brings as much as if not more to the table than a college intern from a top school, then maybe (but it will be an uphill battle, especially at a larger company). Otherwise, I suspect they'd be out of luck.
For example, we have a student who has created an extensive event management system (with an awesome looking ui) backed by a python backend, with features like email notifications and google cal import. It also has a nice rest api backend and ties into an authentication api for wordpress that he wrote.
Also forgot to add that he has also has taken college level classes like CS 046A and 046B at San Jose State University and completed the AP Computer Science test with a 5. I dont want to make this sound like a CV but I just wanted to expand a bit further on what I meant with "qualified student".
Hey :) I'm actually building a job board for teens who are qualified in development @ http://teen2geek.com, and I will be launching it complete with internships already listed from some prominent tech startups I've talked to. You can check out how it will look here - http://jobs.teen2geek.com, although the current data on it is all placeholder until release.
I was in high school when I started CS (now a junior in college) and if there is one thing I would suggest is not to go for the internship this early.
Not only is he/she going to have to settle on an ok to subpar internship because of his/her age, but he/she is also going to never have more free time than now to create some kind of business on their own. In this time, I would experiment with different business ideas and try to start something awesome. Something that helps people solve problems.
I love CS, but I am the type that more than anything wants to build a company and help people. I understand if he/she is not the same way, but if I would have recommend not jumping into the workforce so immediately.
The day quickly approaches where I have to make a decision to either start my own thing or get a job somewhere. A job takes a majority of your time which would really put a damper on my dream. There are stories of people doing both, but if it happened all the time, it wouldn't be a story. I'm not using that as an excuse, I am using it to bring home the point to enjoy and take advantage of the time you currently have without responsibilities.
Bottom line is have fun. Experiment with different ideas. Try to make something cool that people want. There are more than enough resources to get started. Just do it.
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[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 25.3 ms ] threadYou're going to have to expand on that. If by "qualified high school student" you mean someone who has built at least one impressive and non-trivial project that real people are using and brings as much as if not more to the table than a college intern from a top school, then maybe (but it will be an uphill battle, especially at a larger company). Otherwise, I suspect they'd be out of luck.
Since it sounds like you're in the south bay, you might check out NASA Ames; they may have something similar.
I love CS, but I am the type that more than anything wants to build a company and help people. I understand if he/she is not the same way, but if I would have recommend not jumping into the workforce so immediately.
The day quickly approaches where I have to make a decision to either start my own thing or get a job somewhere. A job takes a majority of your time which would really put a damper on my dream. There are stories of people doing both, but if it happened all the time, it wouldn't be a story. I'm not using that as an excuse, I am using it to bring home the point to enjoy and take advantage of the time you currently have without responsibilities.
Bottom line is have fun. Experiment with different ideas. Try to make something cool that people want. There are more than enough resources to get started. Just do it.