
My Internship Experience as a 13-Year-Old - shainvs
http://www.shalinshah.me/my-internship-experience/
======
onedev
Man when I was that age, my only concern in the world was trading Pokemon
cards after school. I wouldn't have given up that carefree experience for the
world.

I don't know how I feel when I read about things like this.

It starts off as jealousy that the kids started their "career" at such a young
age, then respect towards them for the same reason, but then I feel sad
because at the end of the day I feel like they're being robbed of a childhood
in some ways.

Then I go back and read, and it seems like the kid had a lot of fun, and maybe
_I 'm_ the one who's lacking perspective.

I don't know. I think it's great at the end of the day. Obviously smart kid,
and he'll go places, but I just don't want him to miss out on the more
lighthearted times in his life.

~~~
scotty79
> I wouldn't have given up that carefree experience for the world.

How do people get that feeling? I don't remember being carefree ever in my
life. I can imagine being carefree but I also can imagine taking a walk on the
surface of Mercury. Childhood is such a crappy time filled with school,
illness taking forever, boredom taking forever, being tired, hurt and in pain.
Each time I finished some school I felt awesome because I knew I won't have to
deal with that crap and those teachers anymore. Best thing about school is
that when holidays come you can forget all you learned last year. No-one will
ever examine you on that. I remember growing up as progressing freedom to not
do the stuff I don't want to do. Life was definitely easier as it went.

The joy I remember from childhood was reading books about physics and
chemistry and running experiments in my head. I'd be delighted if someone gave
me internship in some lab where I could help with actually performing them.

~~~
mercer
Interesting perspective. I had the luck, in hindsight, to have ridiculous
amounts of freedom until the age of 16. I was homeschooled with my brothers
(and eventually two close friends of the same age) and a fresh-out-of-teacher-
school 'teacher' who wasn't very good, but was our friend. We had school at
her apartment and then all had lunch at my house.

Then from age 13 on I was allowed to work at home, where I would usually
either skip my homework or use the answer booklet to do it quickly. On a given
day, I would spend at most four hours on 'school' and then do whatever I
wanted. At first I probably abused this freedom, which led to boredom. So very
soon, I started reading every book I could get my hand on, learned some
programming and spend most of my early afternoons to evenings playing with
kids in the neighbourhood.

Then at the age of sixteen I returned to 'normal' life and had massive
difficulties adjusting to the regular school system, but I made it through and
went on the university.

Experiences such as yours solidify my view that the school system we all grow
up with is flawed. It teaches us that learning isn't fun, and makes us do
silly things and jump through pointless hoops.

To be fair, school has to deal with all sorts of kids. If others had been
given my freedom they might not have gravitated towards learning, and failed
horribly upon returning to regular life. But I'm sure there are many like me,
and I hate the thought that they had to put up with the kind of stuff you
describe.

------
untitledwiz
Please, go outside, play and run around. Learn to skate, get a
boyfriend/girlfriend. There will be so much opportunity for work later on in
life. Definitely spend time coding if that's what you love but don't make it
your everything. Develop other aspects of your personality/intelligence/body
equally. Best wishes!

~~~
Rayne
As a 19 year old software engineer who started writing code when he was 13
_because it was fun_ , I don't think this quite hits the mark.

I didn't give up everything in life to be a programmer, but it was my passion
(and it looks like it's this guy's passion as well). It _is_ fun. I still
played outside, had friends, and lived a childhood. What I got out of it are
skills that are in demand, a head start on life, and adult, mature friends who
kept me out of trouble and helped me build a fun, happy life for myself.

I owe _everything_ to programming. I was a kid from a small town in Alabama
and now I'm a happy software engineer in Los Angeles. I got to go to the first
Clojure Conj conference when I was 16, speak at the second at 17, and get an
internship that led to a job at around the same time. I met the best friends I
could have ever met through it and have had more fun that I could have ever
imagined having as a direct result of it.

That said, we're not entirely at odds. It is important to keep yourself
healthy and such and not let it completely take over your life. I just felt it
important to provide a different perspective on the matter.

~~~
untitledwiz
Different perspectives are definitely useful and thanks for taking the time to
share yours. It sounds like you have figured out the priorities in your life
and have balanced things out. That's really all I was advocating for, balance.

------
purplelobster
It's amazing that the culture can be so different. Going to college in a
European country, I never did an internship. I barely even worked summer jobs,
I did maybe one summer's worth of work spread out over a few years, just to
get some money. Even college summers were spent LANing with friends, fishing,
watching movies, swimming, traveling, reading, some recreational coding etc.
Just enjoying the summer, not worrying about my future career. It was great.
Honestly, even though I could've spent my summers doing internships, I think
it would have been rather pointless. I was already working 110% during the
school year and still learning basic math, science and related theory.
Whatever work I would've put in would have been sub-par. And that time was
great to unwind.

Imagine my astonishment when I first came to the US and kids in the first and
second year of college were doing internships at Google, Amazon and Microsoft.
Good on them I suppose, especially getting paid well to do it, but I can't see
how it helps much. Seems mostly like a way for Google et al to fish for young
talent before they graduate.

Anyway, being as excited about coding as this kid is, maybe this is the best
way for him to use his time, but the culture difference is just amusing to me.

~~~
argonaut
_> even though I could've spent my summers doing internships, I think it would
have been rather pointless._

 _> I can't see how it helps much. Seems mostly like a way for Google et al to
fish for young talent before they graduate._

There is tremendous value in summer internships. You get to "test out"
companies to work for after graduation. You get to learn _a ton_ about
actually using technologies in production and/or at scale. You get to learn
from engineers who have years of industry experience. You get to work on
technologies you would otherwise never work with (e.g. big data) by yourself.
By the time you graduate, you will already have 9 months work experience,
rather than 0, which makes starting a startup a more feasible option than
before. I'm a little bewildered as to why you (or the culture in Europe?) find
these internships pointless.

If what you say about the culture in Europe is true, I find this to actually
be a competitive advantage for students/companies in the US.

------
jacalata
This is a sweet experience, but I think it's more accurately described as
'programming camp'. A company that has a business of teaching kids to program
games advertised for some kids to come in during the summer and be taught to
program games as guinea pigs. Of course, I can see why the company and the
kids involved would all be more excited to describe it as an internship, but
that doesn't mean everyone needs to let them get away with redefining the
word.

------
adamzerner
You've got a real nice sense of design: in general, and _especially_ for a 14
year old!!

And keep doing what you love. Don't worry about the SAT's your sophomore
summer. [http://www.paulgraham.com/hs.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/hs.html)

~~~
vineel
I second this. Summers should not be spent studying for the SAT.

Also, a good internship will look much better on a college app than a few
extra points.

~~~
shainvs
I think I should study for the SAT, because I'll only be giving up one of my
summers (I can intern during my Freshman, Junior and Senior summers)

~~~
krrishd
I'm looking to go to Stanford upon graduating high school (like you also
expressed an interest to do), and from what I have heard, they definitely
value SAT scores very high, but if there isn't anything besides that (like
your development/internship experience), they honestly don't care much about
your scores. And also, I'm pretty sure the SAT takes place senior year, unless
of course you are going to be using your genius capacities to do it earlier :)

~~~
vineel
Most people will take their SAT at the beginning of their Junior year. This
way they have ample time to retake if they're not happy with their scores.

Stanford, MIT, and the Ivies see the SAT as more of a threshold score. I.E.
there's not much difference between a 2300 and a 2400. As long as you have
above a certain range, you should be fine. The SAT doesn't make or break
people.

------
zachlatta
I think what you're doing is really neat. I'm also a high school student and
I'm always excited to meet others my age. I'd love it if you could shoot me an
email over at zach@zachlatta.com.

~~~
throwaway344
Thinking about it, we should probably make up a high school-age HNers group.

My email is adam.davies@outlook.com for more details.

~~~
krrishd
I've already been working on a community for high-school coders at
[http://www.teen2geek.com](http://www.teen2geek.com), and so once we launch
(beta will be out in January 2014) I would really love it if some more guys
like you could come over and contribute to the discussions. My email address
is krishna.dholakiya@gmail.com in case anyone wants to talk :)

------
azamsharp1
We need more kids like you! I see kids these days with their heads down in
their mobile device playing games, facebook, instagram, snapchat and what not!
They are wasting precious time. Time that will never come back!!!

~~~
shainvs
Most of the kids my age are doing exactly what you just described above. I
want to be the person making games and apps that other teens get addicted to.

~~~
krrishd
Yeah, and its really ironic how despite our generations addiction to such
games, very few of us actually know the code that goes behind it

------
asandweech
Keep on trucking. I started working full time as a SE when I was 16. The job
provided a nice relief from highschool and helped build up good working habits
before I left for college. If you are interested, see if your school would be
willing to allow for a work study so you would be able to pursue such things
during the school year.

------
visakanv
Hey Shalin, wonderful to hear from you. It's lovely to see your passion and
focus.

I'm curious to hear about your peers. Do you have a group of friends your age
that you hang out with, or do you spend most of your time with older people?

Also, random, but what kind of music do you listen to?

~~~
shainvs
I have a group of friends that are all my age. Also, at the school I go to, no
one really knows how to code.

I usually listen to the billboard playlist while coding.
[http://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100](http://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100)

------
exo_duz
I would've loved to be able to be given the opportunity like this. I live in
Perth and apart from mining the IT industry is non-existant. There are no
internship and mentoring program. I say grab the bull by the horns and do as
much as you can.

------
k__
I think it's still better than those kids who get pregnant at 13...

Everything can be seen as work and fun. If you do something for fun it doesn't
feel like work anymore.

I started coding with 15 and it was a good time.

------
gedrap
That's amazing, I am really happy about the founders getting teenagers as
interns. Those are life long memories for them.

~~~
rurounijones
I thought the entire point of "interns" was to give young people (i.e.
teenagers) the chance to work in a real company and get experience, usually
over school holidays etc.

I think SV (and maybe modern capitalism) has corrupted the term "intern" to be
"an excuse for us to not pay you" without the other benefits experienced by
the "intern".

[EDIT] I should clarify that I am a Brit and never heard the term "intern"
used outside of my above definition until I started reading US tech news where
it seems to be applied to older people as well.

~~~
yeukhon
Not really true. There is no corruption. White House internship doesn't pay
anyone and is one of the hottest place to work for since days. It's entirely a
decision people make. You don't want the money but the experience, you can go
for it. No one is forcing you to take a job without salary.

~~~
daven14
Internships are also good at keeping out the wrong sort of people. Lets face
it - if you can't afford to go to work and not get paid then you're not really
from a good family, and we don't want the wrong sort of people invading our
jobs. Someone with a few internships is obviously from the right stock and we
can safely employ them, providing of course they go to our club.

------
atsaloli
Very well done to both intern and MGWU!

~~~
shainvs
Thank you!

------
shainvs
The IdeyaApp link is now fixed for my portfolio page... Sorry!

------
kevonc
Thats excellent. Keep going!

------
rfnslyr
Man. You are going places. That's all I want to say. Good luck to you and I
will remember your name for the future.

~~~
shainvs
Thank you very much! I appreciate it!

------
pallandt
Excellent and I hope you acquired Proxima Nova legally. If not, better make
that right.

~~~
pallandt
I find it funny that this was downvoted into oblivion. It's valid advice,
especially considering this person is young and needs guidance/advice for best
practices.

