What advice would you give a high-schooler interested in tech?

Question

(This was originally sent to a group of people I have worked with and trust and it was suggested that I post this here. I've been a software developer, architect, manager, vp, tester, trainer, tech writer, etc., and my presentation is primarily about Android & other mobile application development.)

Next week I'm going to be giving a presentation to 3 groups of high schoolers interested in technology and technology careers. One of the things I've been asked to include is any advice that I think would be valuable for them.

If you are willing to share, I would like to hear what advice you would give based on your life experiences and observations.

What would you be looking for if they approached you about work?

Perhaps you are in that age group right now. What do you want to know?

Perhaps you are just a few years into the workforce. What do you wish someone had told you but never did?

Perhaps you have children, relatives or friends in or soon to be in that age group. What are you worried they don't know about?

I'm sure there are other perspectives and questions I'm not even thinking about. I'd like to hear what you have to say about it.

Answer 1

It's rather commonplace but advice #1 should be:

Seek a career in a field that you really like (actually love!)

Liking a particular discipline isn't a sufficient condition to excel in the underlying profession, but it sure is a necessary one.

The implications of this advice multiple:

• find ways to discover the profession/domain
  For example, intern (even, expecially) for free in an enterprise where this type of jobs exist. As an intern you may not get too much of the action, but if you are personable enough, serious in your assignements, and explicit in your interest to discover the job, people will go out of their ways to try and give you a feel for it.
• be honest with yourself
  Mastering any non trivial skill requires dedication and efforts, however, after trying "long enough" (now the question can be how long, and in which conditions) you need to accept that maybe "you don't have what it takes", and BTW that is quite OK.
• Not 100% of the activities surrounding a particular profession are fun and easy.
  Expect to have to work very hard, but, if you like the field, if you have feel for it, it will be much easier.
• In the area of programming-at-large, DO YOUR MATH
  You needn't be a math genius, but be sure that you'll need a passable fluency in many math concepts to truly excel in this field.

Answer 2

Well, the first issue I'd want cleared was what, exactly, they meant when they talked about Tech. Many people think they're tech literate because they can use technology, and that's fine if they're going into sales or marketing or construction. For the ones that are interested in developing technology and advancing the science, I would advise them that:

• None of the classes they've taken so far have given them real programming experience. At most, they've done some HTML and/or simple scripting. This was true when my son was going through the programs at high school a few years ago and I don't think it's changed much.
• If they want to move into development, they need to learn one basic axiom: the computer will do only, but exactly, what you tell it to do. There's no such thing as "the computer screwed up." What screwed up was a programmer who failed to consider a condition or handle an exception.
• There will be times when you love what you're doing and times when you hate it. Learn to cherish the times you love it and cache them for the less pleasurable times.
• Being a professional, no matter what the profession, is more than just understanding and applying the science. It's accepting a challenge, doing your best to meet that challenge, and learning, always learning, from both successes and failures.

Answer 3

Study tech and don't focus too much on a career in it today. When I started in university in 1993, I didn't know what e-mail or a web browser was yet just a few years later in early 1998 there I was in my first job as a Software Design Engineer working on building an e-commerce website for a dot-com company. Did I know that there would be this boom when I started? Nope, and this was before Netscape or Yahoo! were big names.

Go learn what you want to learn and understand that the job titles you have when you graduate may not be commonly known today.