# What kind of jobs could I get?



## bwhitmire (Jun 25, 2010)

Hello,

I am currently 15 years old and am thinking about going for a career in computer programming. I currently can script in multiple programming languages and have a few certificates I've obtained through www.certiport.com .

The only drawback I am having is that I do not know what kinds of jobs I could obtain while being a professional programmer. Of course, you have those that would do off-side projects for people in need, but are there any companies that I could look into that would be interested in me?

Currently, I can script in:

- PAWN (Linked with MySQL)
- Lua
- HTML (XHTML)
- CSS

And I am currently learning:

- Javascript
- PHP
- SQL
- ASP
- C++ / C#

Any input you have would be greatly appreciated!


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## tim19889 (Jan 24, 2010)

Wow, you're a genius. But no, I don't have any advise. Sorry lol.


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## bwhitmire (Jun 25, 2010)

Lol, thanks.


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## blackbeagle (Aug 8, 2008)

It sounds like you have some great skills for someone your age. Most 15 year olds only like to play video games. If you know all those languages, then you're way ahead of the curve. Good for you. 

With that said, I doubt any companies are going to hire a 15 year old. I don't know what type of 'side' projects you can do either with programming. You might be able to fix someones' computer and charge them $30 or whatever, but not programming. Your neighbor is not going to pay you to write him a program, you know what I mean? 

With that said, continue to do what you're doing. Learn, learn, learn, and practice. 

Then once you're done with HS, go to a good university and get a Computer Science degree. So essentially in 5-6 years, you're going to be a major player. You'll probably get paid decent money too. 

I wished I had your skills at that age. When I was 15, I was just discovering girls, playing Atari, and bagging groceries at my local supermarket. :grin:

Good luck


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## bwhitmire (Jun 25, 2010)

Thanks for the reply.

I wasn't talking about getting employed by any companies at my current age, I'm talking about after college and such. 

And I actually got introduced to programming through an online game I played. Currently, I sell scripts for that game for money. About $30-$50 a script, and I make a couple every week, so I'm already getting some profit for my hard work. 

Thanks for the response. I plan on getting started with C++ soon, since PAWN is closely related to it (syntax wise, at least)


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## blackbeagle (Aug 8, 2008)

If that's the case, at your current pace, you'll have no problem getting a good paying gig. Continue to build your portfolio. Once you're done with college, I might need to come to you for a loan :tongue:


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## bwhitmire (Jun 25, 2010)

Thanks man 

I've just downloaded and started playing around with C++ functions. After studying around with it, and reading some tutorials I've created a mini-game in the console for guessing the amount of cookies in a cookie jar lol. 

My next project will be a Black Jack and Go Fish mini-games


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## blackbeagle (Aug 8, 2008)

bwhitmire said:


> Thanks man
> 
> I've just downloaded and started playing around with C++ functions. After studying around with it, and reading some tutorials I've created a mini-game in the console for guessing the amount of cookies in a cookie jar lol.
> 
> My next project will be a Black Jack and Go Fish mini-games


If I were you, I would consider learning the hardware end as well. Maybe you already know it. Learn all the hardware, networking terminology. Be well rounded on the software and the hardware side. Once you get into college, you can specialize in the software learning .Net, SAP, Python, etc. 

The key word is, without experience, your education needs to be well-rounded.


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## bwhitmire (Jun 25, 2010)

If you're talking about common knowledge with hardware trouble shooting, then I'm somewhat there. If you're talking about hardware behind C++, I have no idea what you're talking about and I'm definitely going to get looking into it. 

And if you don't mind, could you give me some useful links behind all of this information? I've pretty much only done programming before with computers, alongside with simple problems, but nothing to complex.


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## blackbeagle (Aug 8, 2008)

bwhitmire said:


> If you're talking about common knowledge with hardware trouble shooting, then I'm somewhat there. If you're talking about hardware behind C++, I have no idea what you're talking about and I'm definitely going to get looking into it.
> 
> And if you don't mind, could you give me some useful links behind all of this information? I've pretty much only done programming before with computers, alongside with simple problems, but nothing to complex.


Yeah. THat's what I'm pretty much talking about. Hardware, networking, TCP/IP, etc. Know the lingo. Know the basics. Stick with software and programming because ultimately, that is what pays. But you still need to know how the hardware works.


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## SeRCH4 (Jul 29, 2010)

Damn Kid your on your way to something good. Save all your work that you do to build that portfolio. You will nooo problems getting a job. Most of the time when you get a programming job you dont work on your own. you will work only on a little piece of the software that you will be writing code for, and yess programming is what pays.. good job keep on learning.


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## Thunder7102 (Jul 25, 2010)

I have to give you props man. I'm 16 and I was only developing video games with Multimedia Fusion 2 at 15. Until now, I'm taking CISCO at my high school. I didn't have the self discipline to learn Python. I have HTML under my belt, so I know where you are there. But I was too lazy to learn Python, and as sure as God, I wasn't about to start C+. XD

I am considering on sticking with networking as it is something I have developed a passion for. Your belt of computer languages is quite impressive though. 
I only learned to dual boot, move around in Terminal in Ubuntu, and play with the UDP flooder with no idea what it actually did at your age. XD


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## Eva2010 (Jul 13, 2010)

you can search some job about what you have learn from website..


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## bwhitmire (Jun 25, 2010)

Thank you all.

I've been studying more about C++ and it's a lot more different than the other languages I'm used to programming in (PAWN/Lua). It amazes me how much code you have to write to make a pretty basic window. However I've learned a great deal on it, I've already integrated some of the few mini-console games I created and put them into functional windows, but nothing special.

I think I'm going to take a break from it for now and start learning PHP and SQL more. I've always been a fan of creating simple websites, and linking those two with it would be great for me. Not to mention a nice "side job" while I'm still going through High School


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