
Ask HN: I'm a 19 year old high school dropout - jaredallard
I&#x27;m 19, I&#x27;ve been programming since I was 10 years old. I can work with node, Docker and a ton of apis&#x2F;DevOps stuff. Though it&#x27;s not super relevant here.<p>I recently got into the final stages of an interview, and may have a job offer shortly. I&#x27;m worried if I should take it or not. I currently live with my mom and she says I shouldn&#x27;t because not having a diploma can really hurt my valuation down the line. However, I also see this job as one I can easily do that pays $60k&#x2F;yr in Seattle, so it&#x27;s ok for a junior role.<p>What should I do? I want to take the job and get experience, but I also feel I should either get my last year of high school done, or get the GED... But I don&#x27;t want to waste time on it as well.
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mindcrime
Take the money. Programming is one career where, for _many_ firms, experience
still trumps academic credentials. Get a programming job, succeed at it, stay
there a couple of years, and barring some major change in the macro-economic
environment, you won't have much trouble finding other jobs even without a
H.S. diploma or college degree. That said, it wouldn't hurt to complement your
experience with _some_ academic credentials, even if only an associate degree
from the local community college. As somebody else said, consider night
classes if you can.

You can also look at taking Coursera, EdX, Udacity, etc. courses to help fill
out your resume. They might not count "as much" as a regular degree to some
employers, but as somebody who is very involved in reviewing resumes,
interviewing, and influencing hiring decisions, I can tell you that they are
considered at some companies, including at least one very large computer
company you've definitely heard of.

~~~
wahern

      Programming is one career where, for many firms, experience
      still trumps academic credentials.
    

That becomes less true every year, unfortunately. And it's entirely
predictable. There are millions of middle-aged and elderly adults today who as
young people enjoyed employment in a growing sector with minimal formal
education, only to find themselves economically stranded when the sector
matured and shrank.

Counseling a young kid _not_ to get a GED is indefensible. Life is a lottery.
Just because you can see a path forward today doesn't mean that path will
remain viable tomorrow. And despite the increasingly rapid pace of changes in
our modern economy, a high school diploma or equivalent has remained extremely
valuable. Among other things, it will be difficult to pursue post-secondary
education at accredited institutions without a GED.

Kid, there's no reason you can't take the job _and_ get your GED. And
remember: formal education isn't for learning stuff you could learn on your
own, it's for learning stuff you couldn't or wouldn't bother learning on your
own. That's why it's simultaneously so difficult (in the sense of willing
yourself to do the work), yet so important. It's a cruel world out there[1]
and you want to acquire all the tools you can, especially easy ones like a
high school diploma or GED.

Also, always remember success is more visible than failure. Similarly, people
who succeed without credentials are much more visible than those who didn't
succeed or who suffer significantly diminished earnings power. I can assure
you, as somebody who has worked in IT _without_ a STEM degree for almost 20
years, and who makes much more than the median compensation in Silicon Valley,
that engineers with a STEM degree enjoy a significant advantage,
notwithstanding people like mindcrime and myself.

[1] It's cruel in the sense of being unforgiving. Many people, perhaps even
most people, will enjoy a comfortable existence with nominal effort. But it
only takes one illness, one accident, one crime, or one some-other-event to
drag you to the bottom. Climbing out of a hole is immensely more difficult
than falling in, and it's at times like those when decisions like you're
facing now will matter most.

------
cjbprime
Unpopular opinion: you'll probably find that people who went to college will
tell you to take the job, not realizing how college helped them (honestly it
sure seems like it wasn't that directly useful in retrospect), and people who
dropped out of school will tell you to finish school first. How are those of
us with degrees supposed to know what life would have been like if we'd never
finished high school?

How many more months would it take to finish high school? Could the company
not just wait until your last required day for your start date?

~~~
jaredallard
Unfortunately it'd take 1.5 years to finish, or I would ask such a thing. I
dropped out because I went to full high school but didn't get credit for two
years of it and was not going to make it up. I was a bit reckless.

~~~
cjbprime
Finishing high school at 21 certainly sounds strange. It sounds like you
should take the job.. in part because you've already gone two years down this
road of not finishing schooling.

If you can find a way to combine the job with a path towards college, seems
like it'd be ideal.

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gamechangr
Take the 60K job. You can always go to community college at your own pace to
settle the quest to learn and make mom happy. A degree no longer leads to a
certain job offer these days, so take the job, if they offer it to you.

Get a few years experience and no one will care if you have a degree or not.

Plus it never hurts to spend a little time developing yourself. You may decide
to go a whole different path (like a lawyer or doctor) and may wish that you
didn't go into debt before you exposed yourself to more ideas (like
programming as a profession). Make an informed decision, unlike 50% of college
students these days.

------
pizza
Have _them_ say no to _you_ , before you say no to yourself, imo. At least
then you can always still go for those other options afterwardsif it doesn't
work out, but also if it does, right?

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hourislate
Work during the day and attend night school and finish up your HS Diploma.
There is no reason you can't do both. You can then decide if you want to
pursue post secondary education part time.

~~~
mindcrime
I believe in some places community colleges will accept you even without a
H.S. diploma / G.E.D., although some "remedial" courses may be required
depending on test scores. In theory it's possible to get a college degree
without ever having earned a H.S. diploma first. Heck, as far as that goes, I
believe it's possible - in principle - to get a Ph.D. without getting a H.S.
diploma, or anything else, first although it would certainly be a rare
accomplishment.[1]

[1]: [https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17841/phd-
witho...](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17841/phd-without-
previous-academic-degree-truth-or-myth)

------
sgeneris
It's the conflation of education with job training that is pushing America
down the drain and Trump is only one consequence of it.

The purpose of education is not to prepare for jobs, but to produce
knowledgeable, reasoning, civilized, compassionate human beings capable of
critical, independent thinking, which is what America most needs, not ignorant
coders who can be manipulated to blindly program everything in sight, totally
unaware of the inhuman, oppressive and exploitative implications.

------
Mz
My understanding is this guy is a high school dropout who never got his GED:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=jacquesm](https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=jacquesm)

He seems to be doing okay for himself.

Keanu Reeves is also a high school dropout.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keanu_Reeves](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keanu_Reeves)

------
ismaelbej
From my experience having a diploma is a huge boost in job hunting, at least
until you have more experience.

Any company will have no problem in hiring you if you do not have a diploma
but have credential from your work you have done previously or you are well
know in your area of expertise.

But the longer you are out of high school the harder it is going back to
finish it and get a diploma. Sometimes life happens .

~~~
sgeneris
Education is NOT a piece of paper for job hunting. It is development of
intellect. Most coders without education have none.

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dontJudge
Go for the 60k job. Seriously. This is your best option for your immediate
income and future value.

You will have a head start over your peers who won't even enter the work force
until age ~23, with college debt to boot. Go for it and don't look back.

The path to career advancement is to have a job, learn everything you can,
then hop when you find another offer with a big bump in pay.

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jaredallard
In case anyone was wondering, I ended up getting the job :)

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keithchambers
Believe in yourself, take the job, work your ass off, learn all you can, and
you’ll be making $200K in 10 years.

Look me up when you get to Seattle and I’ll give you some pointers.

~~~
jaredallard
I actually live in Seattle right now, and throughout Washington my whole life,
which is why I got into programing (thanks Redmond!)

