
Ask HN: Internships for a 13-year-old? - lachlanjc
I’m Lachlan (@lachlanjc on Twitter), a 13-year-old with skills in Rails, React, Front-end, and UX. I’ve built Noodles (http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.getnoodl.es&#x2F;), a cooking app, and helped build Helpful.io (http:&#x2F;&#x2F;helpful.io) with the community on Assembly (http:&#x2F;&#x2F;assembly.com).<p>I’ve been looking for internships this summer at startups&#x2F;larger companies, but most require having already studied CS in college or something along those lines. Has anyone heard about good internships (most likely in NYC) for this summer?
======
mathgeek
Maybe not the most popular opinion here, or maybe it will be, but advice from
a father of two boys:

Enjoy your childhood for the remaining 3-5 years before worrying so much about
your professional career. You have decades of working in software ahead of
you, if you continue on that path. Just enjoy your childhood, go out and play,
or even just work on projects you enjoy. Once your childhood is gone, you'll
regret not spending more time "not working."

You sound like you already have the work ethic, now make sure you focus on why
you need it.

~~~
isaacdl
It's easy to romanticize "carefree childhood", but I think that's baloney.
I've loved working with computers for literally as long as I can remember.
When I was 13, working with computers _was_ playing! Getting paid to play
would have been a dream come true for me at that age.

~~~
smt88
I've loved it, too, but I don't look back and treasure my countless hours
coding. It's great to have a skill, but the things I remember are time I spent
with my family and friends.

~~~
Eridrus
Would you go back in time and do things differently? I personally wouldn't, I
would do things the same way again; I was crazy motivated when I was younger.

~~~
smt88
I had an amazing time as a teenager because I spent all my time coding or with
people I care about. The only negative consequences was that I got bad grades.
I certainly don't regret getting bad grades.

------
andrewcamel
Lachlan, make sure you're open to job opportunities that aren't initially in
software. When I was 13, a doctor (and close friend of the family) hired me to
organize sign-in documents for new patients at his office. While there was no
mention of software at the beginning, you better bet that by the end of the
summer, I had finished a tool that let patients sign in electronically and
invalidated the need for my initial job.

Just don't be dismissive of initially non-software opportunities, especially
because those are the types of opportunities you're most likely going to see
from family friends (the only people who might be able to hire you at this
age).

~~~
r00fus
Just wanted to second what Andrew is saying here.

In my experience, the most valuable knowledge in software (unless you're in
the elite crew of coders) is domain knowledge - the ability to bridge the
"functional" or "business" needs with the software that can
automate/improve/innovate in that space.

You can be a mediocre coder and bring incredible value to a team by knowing
the domain very well.

You only get this kind of knowledge by studying or living it.

------
sharth
No US company can legally hire you. The only exception I know of is working
for your parents.

[http://www.youthrules.dol.gov/know-the-
limits/under14.htm](http://www.youthrules.dol.gov/know-the-limits/under14.htm)

You can legally work as a computer programmer once you are 14, but there are
strict restrictions on the number of hours you are able to work.

------
danso
Honestly, what's the point of you having an internship right now? You'll have
plenty of time to get work experience. More importantly, you are already far
ahead of the game. The apps you've built show not just an impressive range of
programming/design knowledge, but more importantly, knowledge of _purpose_ \--
why we build things, why we do things --...which is something 23-year-olds
often lack, nevermind 13-year-olds.

You seem to have your own DIY-initiative and an ability to learn independently
and execute. It seems like an internship would add little to that, and at the
same time, there's the opportunity cost: what would you have built on your own
outside of that structured internship time?

(nevermind the risk of burning out early, and regretting not having a more
carefree adolescence)

------
wdewind
I don't think we could get you an internship due to liability mentioned in
other comments in this thread, but I'm from NYC and also started looking for
internships around that age so I am familiar with your challenge.

The first time I had an internship the person I was working for insisted on
calling my mom when I showed up because he didn't know how young I was haha.
One place you might be able to have success is Eyebeam
[http://eyebeam.org/](http://eyebeam.org/) I did an internship there when I
was in college, but as a non-profit learning center I think they might be more
likely to have something for you, check em out. You might also try contacting
the High School for Engineering
[http://www.afsenyc.org/](http://www.afsenyc.org/) and see if they know of
anything or have any opportunities.

Also, if you'd ever like advice about working/interning in the NYC tech scene
(or programming in general) feel free to email me, contact info in profile.

------
jfoutz
It's going to be hard to find someone to trust you. Going into the office,
people are going to treat you like a 13 year old and expect you to do boring
stuff, because they can glance at your work and tell if you're doing it
correctly - or at least the way you want them to.

On the internet, no one knows your web server is running lisp. On the
internet, no one knows you are 13. Refuse to do video calls, but be super
responsive to email and IMs. You'll miss out on jobs, but there are a zillion
out there.

I'd suggest, you build something you want. You're in a unique position to
spend years building something amazing, that could make you some money. Work
is essentially building someone else's dream. If your dream and their dream
align, it's great. But for most people, most of the time, work sucks.

Heck, blog about react techniques. make awesome tutorials. I'm 3x your age and
just started learning how to make minecraft mods. I'd suggest that, not
because you're 13, but because it's kind of cool.

~~~
lachlanjc
That’s definitely true, jfoutz. I built Noodles because I wanted to, and I’m
thinking about some more projects I might take on personally.

I’m also going to try and start writing tutorials to make learning things less
painful for new folks, because with more recent frameworks like React there
just aren’t a ton of articles out there yet.

Thanks!

------
smt88
Once you get to college, you're going to realize that you'll never have a
vacation like you did when you were young. Real life starts and it never ends
until you die.

Spend your summer doing something that you love. If that's coding, do that,
and don't worry about getting paid for it yet. Also don't worry about building
your resume -- you can start doing that when you're 14, if your heart is
really set on it.

No one looks back on their life and thinks, "I wish I'd spent more summers
working when I was a teenager." If they're lucky, instead they'll think, "I
wish I could go back to those summers and really appreciate them for what they
were: the last time I really didn't have to worry about anything."

For some perspective, I worked for software companies as a teenager and it
hasn't helped me at all in my career. It wasn't worth the time, although
having money was nice. But I don't remember the money now or what I did with
it.

~~~
wdewind
Counter-perspective: I do wish I'd spent more summers working in software.
Going to camp and doing regular kid things made me miserable. Working for
software companies as a teenager absolutely helped me in my career, and it was
absolutely worth the time.

~~~
smt88
Thanks for your perspective.

I guess I'll add this to my own comment: working at a real job as a teenager
isn't going to make or break his career. He's a smart and driven kid, just as
you seem to have been. If he enjoys coding more than socializing or traveling
or whatever, he should certainly code, but he's already well beyond his peers
(and always will be).

It's just very different to work on your own stuff at your own pace vs.
working for a boss. I also suspect completing more of his own projects would
actually be better for his career than whatever a company would allow him to
do.

~~~
mcdougle
This. I'd suggest making his own stuff instead of getting into an internship,
maybe building some small apps he could even charge for and make some side
money. Start at 13 and build enough of those, and he might never need a job. I
wish I'd done something like that in college, when I had plenty of free time.

Plus, that was what always impressed the most during job interviews. I was
generally one of the top prospects in the interviews I did -- not because of
my GPA, or the school I went to, or past job experience, but because of some
of the interesting projects I'd done either on my own or to help out my father
with his businesses. It shows not just skill (which lots of other people have,
even if it might be a bit less than you) but ambition and drive (which, it
seems, not many others have).

------
trcollinson
I started professionally when I was about your age. But back then internships
were a very different thing. And so were startups and large companies to be
honest. Unfortunately most of the large companies I have worked for have rules
about hiring or even having people younger than 18 on premise for work
purposes due to insurance and liability reasons. Many of the start ups would
not hire anyone under 21. They state it is for the insurance and liability
reasons but in actuality it is due to the fact that many have a "beer fridge"
or go out drinking quite a bit and do not want the liability of an under aged
employees.

With that said, there is hope. First off, many companies are lax in their HR
departments and you might just slip through if you have the right connections.
This means hustling as has been suggested: getting emails for employees,
showing them your ambition and character and drive, and getting a foot in the
door. This may turn into a frustrating endeavor as you might be rejected a few
times, but it could work with perseverance.

Second, what makes you think you need an internship at all? You have skills,
start something yourself. Maybe you want to freelance for a while, this could
make for a lucrative summer experience and you will learn amazing skills that
will stick with you the rest of your life. Maybe you have another app you'd
like to build and grow. Again, this would be a fantastic learning experience.

------
brd
No one is going to publicly solicit someone as young as you. If you really
want to find work, you're going to have to hustle for it. Start tracking down
emails and contacting people personally.

Surely someone will appreciate your ambition and give you an opportunity, just
don't expect it to fall into your lap. No one is listing internships with the
expectation that someone pre-college will fill the opening but don't let that
deter you. I say this as someone who landed an internship at 17.

~~~
smt88
Don't go around asking companies to do something illegal for you. I agree that
hustling is good, but not when you put the burden of your success on someone
else.

~~~
lachlanjc
Working on projects with people you meet/know isn’t illegal. Getting a real
job would be, but not this :)

~~~
smt88
If those people are in a company and that company benefits from your work,
they could still be breaking laws related to internships and child labor.

Unpaid internships are illegal except under some very restrictive conditions.

That said, these things don't seem to make it to court, so you're probably not
risking anything by doing them.

------
joliss
There doesn't seem to be much in the way of real intership programs for your
age group.

However, your resume is super impressive, and you're clearly gifted. I'm going
to bet that there will be people who will want to support your ambitions and
create an ad-hoc internship for you. So here's my advice:

Treat your internship search like a job search!

Cold-call and cold-email CEOs of NYC-based startups that use Rails or React.
Medium-sized and small companies might have an easier time accommodating, but
it can't hurt to try bigger companies too just for kicks.

E.g. try this line for cold-calling: "Hi, this is Lachlan. Are you $CEO_NAME
at $STARTUP_NAME? Yes? Cool! I'm a 13-year-old middle school student, and I
built a web app with Rails and React last year. I'm looking for an internship
this summer. I was wondering if that's something you'd consider."

Regarding child labor laws: Businesses with employees tend to already have a
lawyer they regularly talk to (for contracts and compliance). They should be
able to run the labor law issues by their lawyer for you - maybe you'll have
to wait until your 14th birthday, maybe it's possible to structure it as a
"trainee" program that falls under different laws, maybe something else. So
I'd just bring this issue to their attention and leave it up to them to figure
it out.

~~~
lachlanjc
Thanks joliss! That sounds great — I’m going to look around on StackShare and
find some interesting companies.

About the labor laws: I’ll be turning 14 right before the internship could
start (at the end of the school year), but that’s definitely true.

------
brudgers
[I am not a lawyer]

In the United States, Federal labor law limits the employment of children. The
restrictions on employing people under age 14 are rather severe and would
probably preclude any sort of internship:

[http://www.youthrules.dol.gov/know-the-
limits/under14.htm](http://www.youthrules.dol.gov/know-the-limits/under14.htm)

This is probably the summer to work on side projects. Next year the rules
allow a far wider range of employment opportunities:

[http://www.youthrules.dol.gov/know-the-
limits/14-15.htm](http://www.youthrules.dol.gov/know-the-limits/14-15.htm)

The fuller explanation is here:

[http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs43.htm](http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs43.htm)

Good luck.

~~~
lachlanjc
Thanks for that! I’ll be 14 by the time the internship could start, so it
sounds like one could work out in regards to the law.

------
rvdm
Hi Lachlan!

I admire your work and ambition. I started my career at your age as well,
mostly building websites for friends and family.

As mentioned in previous comments, there are US laws that stand in the way of
companies actually hiring you, and nobody wants to break the law.

It might be a good idea for you and your parents to look up what exactly the
US laws are that apply to your situation. Some online research might answer
that question or you can send a quick note to your family attorney.

If you don't have a family attorney I'd be happy to put you in touch with my
attorney, he started coding at your age too and I'm sure he could point you in
the right direction.

That will tell you exactly who can and can not hire you and take that hurdle
of research out of the negotiation process with potential employers.

After you know the legal details I would start looking in your direct
surroundings for opportunities ( friends, family, classmates, classmates'
parents, etc ) or with smaller companies that are more flexible to make
changes accommodating a minor ( e.g. getting rid of the beer fridge
temporarily ).

For example, I run a small engineering studio in Los Angeles, it would be easy
for me to get rid of all of our beer compared to a big corporation that might
have to make more extensive changes to their offices and have a request like
this pass through many layers of corporate bureaucracy.

Good luck!

------
newobj
Why not just learn another language like C++, Java, C#, etc, and spend the
summer making a video game? Sounds like your skills are mostly web-devy right
now. Branch out?

~~~
lachlanjc
newobj: I’m working on learning other languages/frameworks, but I’m really not
interested at all in building or playing video games :)

------
walshie4
I would advise continuing to work on skills using the insane amount of online
resources available. While also working to build up an open-source profile of
side-projects. Side projects not only show that you truly do enjoy developing,
but they also provide a great tangible means for exemplifying your skills. You
have a great jump on learning these skills but because of your age you will
need tangible proof that you have real skill. Because of this I think open-
source side projects are a perfect fit. They're fun, hone your skills, and
prove you can create (and maintain, document, etc.) a software system.

Oh and I can't agree enough with all the people saying savor the time. I can
remember countless days where I was 'bored' stiff all day, while nowadays I
find myself dreaming of being able to not have to sleep daily so I could fit
in even more hours for projects, both personal and professional.

I firmly believe that as you age your perceived notion of time passing only
accelerates.

------
gargarplex
Have your parent or guardian create a profile on odesk.com and just get to
work bidding on jobs within your skillset. Undercharge and knock them out of
the park. Your terrific reputation will allow you to start receiving more work
and build a brand. Perhaps one day you will be able to hire a freelancer to
assist you in the monthly thread.

------
littletimmy
Why do you want to do an internship?

If it is because you like programming, I don't think anyone is going to hire
you for a few years. Why don't you do a few projects on your own and see what
you can come up with?

If it is because you're turning prematurely preprofessional, for god's sake
enjoy your childhood. Go to a pond and skip stones on the water.

~~~
gohrt
Indeed, the best thing to do is to spend your time engaging in activities that
someone else things is fun, instead of what you enjoy.

~~~
littletimmy
I already included in my answer the option that he genuinely enjoys
programming, in which case he should self-start projects.

You'd be surprised, however, at the amount of kids who go "professional" from
a very early age because of parental pressure or something like that. All I
said was that if that is the case, it is too early to go professional.

~~~
lachlanjc
littletimmy: It’s not at all driven by my parents. I’m doing it only because I
love it.

On self-started projects: Noodles was my first of them, and I’m working on
some more. Side projects are great, but right now I’m looking for something
bigger.

------
Eridrus
I would ask you why you're looking for an internship.

If it's for the cash, as people have mentioned, you're going to have a tough
time due to legal issues.

If you're just interested in getting more experience, I would try to find a
mentor who could recommend potentially interesting projects to work on. There
are a bunch of interesting computing technologies that are becoming more and
more accessible to use (e.g. image recognition, NLP, machine learning,
augmented/virtual reality, etc), and I think there are a lot more exciting
things to do than work on yet another webapp.

Personally I spent ages 14+ learning how to hack websites and web browsers,
and I found that to be a lot of fun, but there are piles of other things to
get excited about. If you want some cash, companies will pay bug bounties to
people as young as 13 for finding security vulnerabilities in their websites
(see: HackerOne etc).

~~~
lachlanjc
It’s not for the cash — I’m not even concerned that I’ll get paid at all. I
more want it because endlessly building things on your own isn’t as
challenging or as much fun as being with a team for a little while. I’d also
like to meet some more new people along the way.

On security: I’ve emailed several companies about security bugs on their
websites, but I hadn’t considered being paid for it. I’ll check that out!

Thanks.

~~~
teenageSec
Email me (teenageSec@mailinator.com) sometime if you want to chat about web
security stuff. I'm 17 years old and I tend to spend my free time working on
bug bounties etc. I can certainly give you some pointers on this sort of
thing.

------
ben_pr
I really doubt you will find anything at your age but there are lots of
opportunities to do cool stuff.

You can always look for really popular websites that need a total redo. Try
buying a horse trailer or a horse and the horrific sites that await you are a
world of opportunity to replace. Examples:
[http://www.horsetrailerworld.com/](http://www.horsetrailerworld.com/)
[http://www.dreamhorse.com/](http://www.dreamhorse.com/)

Hard to believe after 15 years those sites haven't changed and are still some
of the most popular equine sites around.

Not any real money to be made in this but someone needs to fix this mess.

I'm sure there are dozens of other types of sites like this but these are two
I'm familiar with.

------
bliti
As someone who was once in a similar position:

\- Due to child labor laws it might be an uphill battle.

\- If no one will give you am internship you can try and join a bigger open
source project.

\- If all fails I'll happily not give you an intership and not have you
working with robotics aimed software. Remote though. ;)

------
pairing
How about taking an online course this summer instead of an internship
(Coursera's machine learning would probably be a very big project depending on
your current level of math or the MIT SICP lectures & book to start learning
CS/functional programming)?

The path to mastery is mostly self learning in my limited experience in
software so far, so the earlier you learn that and build the skills to learn
on your own the better off you will be. Learning on your own without a
teacher, grades, mentor, or internship will prepare you more for the real
world than most college students.

------
sodevious
Getting an internship at 13 can be difficult, but not impossible. Here's my
advice from my experience coming to NYC for an internship while in HS:

\- Try your hardest, and don't let anyone tell you you can't.

\- Figure out if there are any employment laws that could affect you working
somewhere.

\- Don't tell people how old you are, until it's absolutely necessary
(legally), let them judge you on your skillset and portfolio

\- Ignore their requirements. Apply and ask for the position anyways!

~~~
lachlanjc
👍 Thanks sodevious!

------
aries1980
Hi,

I don't know the legal ages in the US, but in Europe you can't take work
officially below 16. What I recommend is rather to make contact with the
leaders of some serious open-source project you like and contribute. You gain
some fame and get in touch some people who will happy to take their company
bounty to recruit you later. :)

PS: it is just wording, but you probably looking for a apprenticeship, not an
internship if you are looking for a formal work.

------
ryanq_do
While US Law and I am guessing the laws in many other countries may prevent
you from working for a company not owned by immediate family if you really
want to get some experience in I would recommend looking into contributing to
an open source project. OSS contributions look great on a resume, get you real
world experience and contributions are judged based on the quality of the
code, not the age of the coder.

------
ShaneCurran
Some of the answers saying you can't be employed at your age are not
necessarily true. I'm a couple of years older than you but what you can do is
to structure your employment in such a way that you are an independent
contractor and your employers compensate you for your services. This way you
would be self-employed and not subject to the relevant employment laws in your
region.

------
ksenzee
Contribute to an open source project. Drupal has had serious, valued
contributors as young as nine and ten. One of them, Dmitri Gaskin, keynoted a
Drupal conference where he talked about his experiences as a contributor.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMJCOViG0jE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMJCOViG0jE)

~~~
lachlanjc
ksenzee: Nice! I spend a ton of time working on open-source projects over
Assembly: [http://assembly.com/](http://assembly.com/). Thanks for the
suggestion.

------
swampthing
What others have mentioned - it's really hard to hire a 14 year old legally.
Maybe try contributing to an open source project?

------
mvarner
You can't really legally work anywhere at 13/14 -- I would totally recommend
involving yourself with open source communities, joining a hackerspace, or
looking for tech-related non-profit organizations that are interested in
volunteers. Google Summer of Code might be a good option for you!

------
jackgolding
Not sure about US law but I believe it is illegal for someone so young to do
full time white collar work in AU.

------
kelukelugames
You gotta know someone. Like parent's friend, relative or something like that.
At age 13 that is pretty much the only way. Hell, it was how I got my IBM
internship at age 18.

------
keyanp
Alternatively you could do this:
[https://www.recurse.com](https://www.recurse.com)

------
ecnahc515
Google summer of code would have been a good option, and definitely a great
option for next year though.

------
lachlanjc
By the way, I will be 14 once an internship would start. This opens up the
child labor laws a lot.

------
theklub
Lie about your age and work online.

~~~
smt88
This is a very, very bad idea in the US. As a 13-year-old, you can't legally
sign a contract, and that has serious implications for both parties as well as
your parents.

Edit: comment below is correct, please disregard what I said (although it's
still a very bad idea to trick people into signing a contract with you).

~~~
dragonwriter
> As a 13-year-old, you can't legally sign a contract, and that has serious
> implications for both parties as well as your parents.

That's not generally true, in US jurisdictions; minors can legally enter into
contracts, but contracts with minors outside of certain limits are generally
voidable at the option of the minor. And a number of states have additional
rules which provide conditions which allow some contracts of minors which
would otherwise be voidable to be binding if certain procedural steps are
taken.

------
johnmaguire2013
Hey Lachlan,

I'm a 19-year-old software engineer for Barracuda Networks. When I was about
your age, I was very interested in programming and computers as well. :) (You
can actually find screenshots all the way back to the very embarrassing
beginning where I tried to figure out how fonts + iframes worked here:
[http://www.screenshots.com/ghostlypets.com/2005-12-15](http://www.screenshots.com/ghostlypets.com/2005-12-15))

Like you, I spent a lot of time wishing I could just "be at MIT already" or
"just get hired to do some work." As most people have said here, however, in
the US, you can't legally be hired, as much as this sucks.

However, you should check whether the high school you're soon to be attending
has a FIRST Robotics program. You'll get to work on a team, similar to a small
startup company, to build a robot (and a website, and a business plan, etc.)

Additionally, one thing that I found was pretty helpful to me was to find some
small niches that needed devs (when I started, I used virtual pet sites as
this niche, being a Neopets fan, and later moved to Bitcoin when that got
popular.)

I got recruited when I was 18 because the company saw me on LinkedIn, saw my
Github, and was already interested in me. It was awesome. I'm glad I'm here,
it's what I always wanted. But I also have less time to work on "side
projects" (i.e. the type of projects you get to work on right now), which
means less time to learn what I want to learn and more time to learn what the
company needs.

So my advice to you would be to find some niches you're particularly
interested in and explore them to the fullest extent you can. Learn multiple
languages, learn multiple paradigms, learn multiple architectures.

The web and computers are more complex now than they were when I was young,
and they are going to continue to get more complex. The more abstractions you
create, the more there is to learn in the entire field of programming. But
when you get into a business role, you have to focus on what makes something
work, rather than what's new, what's interesting, or what you don't already
know. Now is the time to keep doing that sort of thing, and figure out what
you _really_ like about programming.

P.S. Looking at you and your friend's sites and blogs, you are the kind of
devs companies will be trying to hire. :) When I was young I spent a lot of my
time "looking up" to a lot of devs with jobs. Having a job isn't the end-all-
be-all to being a dev. It's not even close. There is so much to learn, and so
much to do, that nobody will ever be a "better" dev than another. Just
stronger knowledge in certain areas. :)

P.P.S. I focused too much on web dev when I was young. You can learn a lot
about languages, and it's awesome because you get immediate results. But
frameworks like Rails provide a lot of abstractions, and if you want to learn
the core concepts behind computer science, using them isn't the best way to
learn. Try writing your own framework, try writing a game (command-line if
graphics is too daunting). You'll learn algorithms, data structures, and
paradigms. That's the type of thing that translates between languages. :)

~~~
lachlanjc
Thanks, John! I really appreciate your response; you’ve got a lot of good
advice there. I’ll quickly respond here from my phone.

I’m trying to learn some other languages/architectures, and side projects are
basically everything I’ve worked on so far. With school in the way it’s hard
to find enough time for everything. That’s why I’m trying to find something
really interesting to work on this summer.

Also: I looked into those laws a bit and it seems like once I’m 14 (I will be
once an internship for me could start), I can work 8 hours/day while school
isn’t in session.

------
jemfinch
Consider Google Summer of Code.

~~~
manish_gill
Can't. Gotta be a university student.

------
throwawayforage
I'm 16, and I was in your position as well, also at age 13. I think I might be
able to give you some perspective.

At 12, I started working on an open-source Ruby gem in a not-so-niche market
(would rather not say, might give it away). I (American) had an offer from
overseas (Britain) to work on a very small project in Ruby using the gem I
created. I got paid about $200 I think, over PayPal. That made me want to
start working.

Someone reached out to me right after my 13th birthday, saying they wanted to
hire me to work on a Rails application, and their idea seemed good. I got
nervous when the guy (whose LinkedIn seemed legit) sent over an NDA, but I
figured, how much trouble can a 13-year-old really get in? I didn't even tell
my parents. I was basically getting paid to work on my gem, which I would have
been doing already - no big deal. After about 2 months, I think the guy caught
on to my age or lack of experience, because he told me I had finished what
needed to be finished. All in all, I made $3500 for about 60 hours of work.

I continued working on my gem for free after that, and other companies reached
out for internships, etc. I turned all but one down, because school had
started in the fall, and that turned out to be only two months or so of an
unpaid internship. I dabbled in other side projects after that - I was bored
of working on the same project for what was now a little over a year.

Imagine my surprise when I come back just 6 months after that, and there are
two forks of my gem on GitHub and it's been downloaded 30,000+ times (not even
counting the other two forks). And yet, the work offers had dried up. I didn't
have a website, no recruiters had my contact information, and I was a little
lost on what to do. I volunteered that summer, telling myself that more
opportunities would arise.

I haven't worked on that project in months. I'm not sure if I'm burnt out from
programming (haven't done much of that recently either), but I'm definitely
burnt out from that project. I logged onto RubyGems recently and between the
original gem and all the forks of it, it's been downloaded 100k+ times. If I
created a blog, and started updating the original gem again, I'm sure I could
find some work. But I'm not interested in doing that, and I'm not sure why.

I'm headed off to college in the fall internationally, with less work
experience than I would've liked and less money in my pocket, too. I'm not
sure what the lesson from my story is, but hopefully it will make you take the
"too fast, too soon" ideas to heart. Don't stop coding - if it's what you
love. But don't let high school pass you by either (just read that you're
actually in middle school). My best memories aren't receiving my checks in the
mail or making a résumé or even coding, but the time I spent with my friends.

To answer your question directly, no - I was never successful in finding
advertised internships for young people. It was discouraging. I'm probably
lucky that guy who paid me for months didn't confront me about my age - I'm
not sure what would've happened.

~~~
lachlanjc
Interesting story. I think that while I may not find an internship this
summer, I can just work on side projects and keep learning — that can always
continue, even if I can’t work with other folks. I really appreciate your
story, and interesting perspective!

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someear
start your own company!

