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Advice for a a teenager?
titanicsaled
Member
Hello,
I'm 16 years old, but I'm sure that my knowledge of computers in general and also VPS's etc rivals many of the member of this forum. I'm interested in pursuing my knowledge and also to expand it and I was wondering if anyone here could offer any advice? Most of the time I just set up things on the VPS's that I can afford but I'm looking to perhaps gain some experience in giving VPS support etc.
Thanks
Comments
What stage of education are you in, 16 is sorta got two different education levels in it.
Started my AS Levels since September
What courses are you doing?
Applied ICT (I wanted to do computer science but it wasn't offered) ,
Chemistry ,
Physics ,
Electronics.
I choose Computing, from what I know ICT is about using Word, Excel etc, which is soo technical.
Learn a programming language if you don't already have one, don't learn ASP.NET or .NET etc, as if you take up programming as your job, your get paid less.
depend on what country he live.
here in Indonesia i know freeport, newmont, caltex, etc looking for fresh graduate with good knowledge and experienced in ASP.NET or NET.. + Oracle. :P
How is Electronics?, I plan to do the same subjects as you except Chemistry will be swapped with Maths.
Anyways, I am pretty much the same as you except 2 years younger, to be honest it will really depend on individual providers and their preferences. Some wont be entertained by the idea of a 16 year old helping out, some will gladly welcome it. At least that's from my experience. I was more interested in Volunteering since it looks good on your CV, yes paid does count but doesn't look as good.
You should find companies which you are actually interested in and like their values etc. and contact them personally. Don't expect tonnes of money either.
I recommend taking classes that focus on your weak areas, while going for a more generalized degree. Pursue certifications on your own, and do a little research into your target field. Call up a few employers, speak with their HR departments, and find out exactly what they look for. Chances are, you can save yourself quite a bit of time and money by simply having a 'generic' degree, and letting your certifications and list of applicable experience do the shining.
Forget the applied ICT course and stick to the more traditional subjects. Then do computer science at a decent university. Keep on playing with your VPS casually to become more competent. Perhaps learn about bash scripting?
Thanks for the great response guys.
Infinity, I would gladly do voluntary work for any provider because I want to expand my experience and knowledge, i'm not interested in money, although a free vps wouldn't go amiss :P. I really enjoy electronics, cause its quite relevant to computing and there is also assembly language on the course.
I am already learning a few programming languages such as C and PHP etc
Be carefull with that, here electronics is much, much, MUCH scary math.
Hmm.. Are you talking about Electronics Design?
Probably xD And isn't scary IMHO, lol.
Yup, I've got my uncle anyways. He's got at that stuff. How hard can it be? xD
Nah i was talking about Electrical Engineering (idk if thats the correct translation).
People studying it have told me that they are basically just calculating integrals the whole day
Thats uni mate
Integrals are easy n_n
Ok, not all xD
Oh i thought op was asking which subject to study at uni
1-dimensional yes, n-dimensional not so much fun
Not sure but I think it's AS and A levels.
Do you want to go to university or go straight into work?
I'm currently studying Computer Science Innovation with a Mathematics minor. You could look into something similar, maybe with an electronics minor (which would probably be more interesting as there's more overlap). Anything you can do now that you don't have to do later will be a plus, so take a look at a university syllabus and grab as much knowledge as you can. C, Java and SQL will probably form a decent chunk of the course.
Well, just is more work u_u
I'm considering between a Diploma and a Degree... Diploma's would be much faster to achieve but I feel that degrees could be more useful in the future...
Where's advice-giving LowEndTalk when I was a teenager?!!
I guess it's the same question facing a lot of teenagers -- more study (uni/college) or go straight to work? If more study, what should I study? Personally I went through university (Engineering in Computing) a decade ago, and have been in constant contacts with students over the last 15 years (mostly overseas students from China/SE Asia), this is what I'll suggest:
Anyway. All the best!
If you like programming, go to college and study CS. Just need willingness to learn any programming languages in any platform. Also, keep pay attention in Software engineering class and how to do and manage project and Methodology. Everything is useful as an experience.
I don't know what they teach for CS nowaday. When I was in school late 80. We had to learn computer networking, architecture, software engineering, all kinds of programming languages low to high level, compilers programming, business computing, database(DB2), Rbase (relational database), SQL, graphic programming/computing, LAN on novel/sun, unix, vax, VSE, MVS, DOS. We wrote program on 256kb memory PC. In Junior year at school, our university purchased 486 DX PC with 32Mb memory. when we had to write the Ray tracing program, we had to let it compile for over night in the lab. I was also privilege to learn & write ADA programming on government computing system. It known to be used for missile (patriots) and fighter planes gear (at north troop).
If you want to be a consultant. There is a lot of stuff you need to know to be in IT consulting. I did IT consulting to the utilities companies.
You may say "where is the beef?". It depend on who wants it and how you present it. One of my friend started out in SAP consulting in early 2000 and he made good chunk of money now aday.
There are various types of consulting and contract.
Consultant job is to give some help to ease customer computing requirement or provide required data or system timely manner. Key is to learn to know how customer business process work.
If you are business minded and like computing. I will suggest you to go for MIS.
Assuming that CS is the same as information technology here, you will basically just learn abstract stuff rather than concrete programming languages. For example they will only teach Java and then expect you to be able to learn any other programming language on your own. Also from my experience of studying it, only like 25% of it is programming.
I will almost definitely be going to university.
Thanks for the really helpful info guys, you all know what your talking about!
Infinity, it sounds like were in the same kind of position
Should I scare folks and mention that my BS in computer engineering is massively out of date?
I think we kinda figured that one out :P
But I'm highly skilled in Turbo Pascal. (Actually I don't remember one bit of it.)
It was actually interesting how they had it setup. It was 50/50 between hardware and software. Understood the guts of a processor and what was needed in the OS to get it to do things. But it was really too little for either side. I never learned how to design that processor nor could I write that OS. Just enough from both sides to do work.
@drmike
I would be interested in reading your P.H.D thesis.