So I am young 14 year old programmer that just started high school yesterday. What are some good things to try and do for a future job? Should I stop coding until hs is over, do I code casually with free time and then after High-school I will know a lot more? Not sure how it all works

Starting a huge project might not be a good idea. But you could use your phone and think about your algos during the breaks to gain time.

Also if you are still in a mostly learning phase like me, I'd sudjets that you stick to casuals so you can work on those skills quite fast and be ready when the real shit starts.

Also try to find some dev relatives, sharing your passion can really improve your learning too.

Build a website, gain networking and scripting knowledges, get used to linux... Those are basic skills you might already have but are crucial.

Good luck ! And don't forget about maths and physics 😉

Definitely don't stop coding. Do it in your free time

I just recently got into tech (I do projects from scratch for startups and refactors for big companies), but my background is liberal arts.

Here's my point:
-- enjoy your life now, worry/code later

When you exit high school, coding might be a thing of the past or with totally rules. So why risk your best years to something that might be totally different in the future?

In tech, people skills and focus are what makes you go really far. Anyone can know a lot. But talking to stakeholders, feel the mood in a room, and know how to translate code into what is really needed? Just a few.

You personality is mostly shaped in your teenage years. Your creativity is being carved right now. You know why there are so many dull devs? Because they didn't fully enjoyed teenage years.

You can start coding again in your free time when you get a job, and you won't loose anything. Actually, nobody in management cares if you started in your teenage years. That's why so many seniors get left behind too.

Just have fun. Try different languages, make something fancy, mod video games, make a personal website, anything, just as long as it is fun. If you make it seem like work it will suck the spirit out of you.

I'm not saying you should not have serious projects, but keeping your mind in check if/when you fail at those is important. Start small, work where your interests steer you.

At 14 you're in a good spot as you have the time and brains to learn new stuff well. I would not stress about employment yet, the tech landscape will probably be quite different when you're in your twenties. Having a few presentable hobby projects might help in finding a job though.

@SirVicco Haha Thanks bud! I will make sure those maths don't get me 🙂

Don't take too colding too seriously when you're so young. Have fun with it but focus on your studies first. Experiment with coding and find what kind you like the most - frontend/backend/systems/embedded, many more.

When you finish high school you'll either still enjoy programming enough to join the industry or you'll be bored of it. If you still enjoy it you'll know what kind of job you want to look for but if you don't then you'll be well rounded enough to find a job in a other industry or go to college/university.

Hopefully it's just me but in case it's not, don't think you don't know enough when you've worked hard to teach yourself things. I went to college for two years and put myself through 4 years of university after. I still didn't think I knew enough to get a tech job. I spent 4 months at a tech boot camp and was in a job 2 weeks after. They were amazed at how knowledgable I was and I know more than some people with masters degrees. Don't be me! Nobody be me!

Well you are interested and you are on dev rant
So i would say you are on a good path :D
I was about your age when was introduced to programming and also was very excited. But I lacked motivation to keep learning when i didnt have some objective in mind.
For example wanted to automate this online game, so then I learned about web scraping, http requests, etc
And even when you dont have some challenge you want to solve, just keep looking stuff up, watch YouTube videos about other peoples projects and you will quickly find ideas for yourself.

I was in your shoes just 5 years ago and now work for CERN :) The best thing you can do is to dedicate some of your free time to learning whatever aspects of IT you like, such as programming and networking (both of which I strongly recommend). Don't give up when you don't understand and for god's sake DON'T RUSH YOUR LEARNING, easy does it, learn all aspects of what you focus on with patience and fun :)

@bartmr No, languages change but the underlying science has never really changed. Implying that things learned now won't be useful in the future is bullshit, particularly if what he spends his time learning are underlying concepts.

Don't stop entirely. Although don't let it consume all your time at this point.

I'd spend some of your free time, weekends whatever just tinkering with different things. Get a Rpi/arduino or something and build random contraptions or robotics even.

The fundamentals don't change, just how we use them. So with a casual stance over the next few years you will have a higher understanding of things come University time.

But above all. Enjoy your teenage years, you only get them once.

Honestly, just do whatever. This whole shit runs on experience, ofc the more code you write, the better you will be, the more you challenge yourself the more you'll learn.. but you can't force it, theres needs to be motivation otherwise you'll risk being burned out for a few months or years if you force it... Everyone is different, and if you enjoy programming you'll do it no matter what anyone tells you in your own time. Live your life and do what you want and you'll grow in exactly what you enjoy doing naturally.

@Hazarth I don't agree that the more code you write, the better you'll be. I've heard so many stories of people coding for 20+ years and not being good programmers. I wonder how many LOC they've written. Doing the same thing over and over doesn't improve quality. Learning what quality is improves quality.

@cmarshall10450 well said. I could've been more specific. This is also why I included the bit about Challenging yourself!

@haxk20 I agree with the part about challenging yourself. Challenge yourself and your own code. Learn new ways of doing things and best practices. Then think about what you've written recently or are currently writing and improve it.

It makes me so happy knowing that my code is a good as I know how to make it.

Id also say the best skill to learn is to know when something it over-complicated. If it seems over-complicated it probably is. It might seem like a clever way to do it and the simple way isn't fun, but the simple way is cleaner and more readable.

@haxk20 sorry. My mistake. I meant to mention @hazarth. I'm obviously involved in too many conversations for my brain to handle.