[ryukoposting]

If you're talented enough to pique a recruiter's interest in high school, you're much too talented to sign yourself away to a single company for the long haul in your 20s. Get experience in different industries, see what different corporate cultures are like, and learn how to negotiate compensation. Do these things early and often, because you don't have a spouse, or kids, or a house yet.

[raddan]

I think there are actually a lot more kids like this than you’d think. Like many of those kids, I was so desperate for a job (I needed a job, to pay rent and to eat) that I would have been happy to take any computer job, since the alternative for me was stuff like unloading trucks and stocking shelves.

Unfortunately the standard hiring channels are not very good at finding those folks because they have few credentials. Also, like me, they may be good at certain things and have huge blind spots in other areas.