Ask HN: Advice for a high school student

[dsthysd]

Hello. I am a 17 year old living in a medium sized town in eastern Canada. Recently I have started to have concerns about my future; not that it will be bad, nor that some unfortunate event shall occur, but rather I am uncertain of the direction to take in my life to be able do what I want. I consider myself lucky in that I know where I want my career to start (most of my classmates do not), which is starting in technology. I can program very well in Java, Javascript (including node and backbone), and PHP, and with the knowledge of all these, other languages are very easy and quick to pick up. I can design quite good looking web applications as well. Since I am graduating this year, I will be going to taking computer science and my town's local university (which is not at all a bad one, but not a top school), although I am interested in taking business as well (and was heavily weighing on whether to go into the business program). The problem is that I do not see what path to take. I do not want to live in this town for the rest of my life. I want to make a difference in companies and most of all start companies.

I have a plan somewhat laid out for my future. My first year at university I will live at home to ease into university life, second year I will switch to dorms to get accustomed to living away from home, and third year I will transfer to a reputable university in a large city such as toronto (or somewhere close such as the University of Waterloo) to make the move, and then take a co-op program to ease into getting a job, however after that I do not know. There seems to be many successful people here on HN, and many people that may have been in my situation. How does this sound? What is your advice on university, how to move to a big city, how to get an interesting job, and how to start a company?

note: I will not e able to respond until later as I am at school for the day

[dirkdeman]

Man, I wish I had your focus when I was in high school! I chose a different career path, then chose another, only to roll in the tech scene by accident. But you know what: I don't regret the choices I made, they all taught me valuable things, insights, ideas. I believe it was John Lennon who said 'life is what happens to you while you're making plans for it', so don't worry about your future path too much.

As for advices: University: in my opinion, universities build networks, not knowledge. If you get in a good uni, by all means go for it. If you don't, there are other ways to build a network. How to move to a big city: easy. Just do it. Don't obsess about the details, just go with the flow. How to get an interesting job: all jobs are interesting at first, especially your first job. No matter where you'll end up for your first job, I guarantee you you'll learn more in the first two months than four years in uni. Not just knowledge, but stuff they don't teach you in school. Like coffee-machine politics, interhuman relations, understanding how a business works. How to start a company: start-fail-repeat.

As for success: that word means something different to anyone. To me, it's not about money, the car you drive or the size of your company. To me, success means freedom, doing stuff I love to do, caring for my family.

So go on, work your way through college, participate in extracurricular activities (tech and non-tech), keep an open mind but most of all: enjoy the ride.

[rprospero]

I'd recommend that you don't focus on computer science. Find a different subject you like and make that your major. Of course, you should keep taking the CS courses. At the very least you should pick up a minor and, if you feel up for it, go ahead and double major, but the other degree should be your focus.

After you graduate, you'll be out in the job market with thousands of other programmers. You'll have some nice coding projects under your belt, as will they. However, when Google/Facebook/Apple is looking for someone on their secret new NLP project, being the only applicant with a degree in Linguistics puts you at the top of the pile. Blizzard won't care if you forget a few semi-colons in your interview code if you can point to your senior thesis on medieval siege engines and discuss how they'd work in Diablo 4. Heck, if you're just in it for the money, J. Random Consulting will shell out the megabucks if they can charge for you as both a programmer and a CPA. If you want to go the startup route, what better way to find a niche than to spend four years working on problems generally solved by people who can't code.

Besides, even in the worst case scenario where you can't get a coding job that has anything to do with your major, you now have a degree in a field you enjoy and can drop out of the programming rat race if you ever burn out.

[gyardley]

If I were you, I'd go to the best university you can get into and you and your parents can afford, regardless of location. I'd also move into a dorm immediately.

The best school possible, regardless of location, is not just so you'll get the best quality education - it's also so you'll meet more of the most interesting people, and be exposed to the most interesting opportunities down the road.

Moving into a dorm immediately is so you'll make friends. Most first-year students are in the same situation - they're in a new location, they don't know many people, and there's lots of social activities, so they'll make friends quickly. If you wait until your second year to start living in the dorm, you'll be entering a situation where people have already made close friendships, and you'll have a harder time getting to know people.

You don't need to worry about the stresses of moving to a new city, and you don't need to worry about 'easing into' dorms - the dorms are already designed to be an experience that eases you into adult life. Best of luck!

[doctorwho]

Dorm life is (or at least was) nothing like reality or adult life. You may become friends with the people you meet in the dorms but I made more meaningful connections with the people who shared the same interests as I did. I met those people mostly in classes we shared. Dorm relationships were more random.

[doctorwho]

Programming is one job where the knowledge you acquire during your career becomes useless within just a few years. I'm over generalizng here of course but, for the most part, it's true. Techniques you learn live longer, accumulated wisdom and approaches are valuable forever but there are no old programmers. Programming languages are not skills,they are tools. Knowing HOW and WHEN to apply them is where the skill lies. You're smart to start thinking about this now before you get boxed in. A business background will definitely help, especially if you're interested in running your own business someday.

I guess it depends on the campus, but dorm life (when I went to UNB) was noisy, messy and distracting. Don't live in a dorm just for the experience of living away from home, rent an apt instead. It's probably cheaper than living on campus and you get to pick your roomie.

[jmsduran]

Being enrolled as a full-time student in a university is the perfect time to dive into formal/mathematical proofs, algorithms, data structures, and discrete mathematics. Those subjects are the backbone of Computer Science, so it will be to your advantage to study those topics thoroughly.

Also I would strongly recommend taking courses (history, economics, music, etc.) that are not related to your major, as college is an opportune time to open your mind and explore new subjects and hobbies. Go wild and don't worry, you'll have plenty of time in the future outside of college to learn PHP/Java API incantations.

[Mahh]

I wouldn't worry about it since you have so much time. Seems like you're in a pretty good spot. I'd consider getting into internships while you're in University(If you go to Waterloo, I think that they pretty much force you to do these in order to graduate) -- you can try working at some startups or bigger companies and see where you'll fit there. I wouldn't plan it out too much. You have to see what you'll enjoy through your experiences.

[jeinhorn]

In my opinion, it’s going to boil down to what you accomplish – not where you go to school. A good school will, however, provide you with a good network and make you more attractive applicant. Once you decide whether you want to study CS or Biz (a decision you need to make for yourself), I would suggest selecting the top program you are admitted to.

When you get to school, capitalize on the opportunity. Learn as much as you can. Don’t map out your next four years. Be agile. Test, try, learn and make moves accordingly. Act like a ‘Start-Up’, don’t just build – test and then build.

Most importantly, make sure that you take some time to smell the roses. You only get an Undergraduate University experience, and access to University women once in your life!

[RollAHardSix]

When you get to college, if you can't do the math, realize this as early as possible. Slogging through will only ruin your GPA and won't be worth it.