Discussion A starting career at 15 years old?

[ceriumin]

Hello Tom's Hardware,
You may know me on Tom's Hardware, I love to pop on and answer people's questions, I enjoy it, a lot. So let me just introduce myself. I am Gracjan, 15, from Poland living in the UK studying computer science as it is my main interest. I am intelligent in both Math and most skilled at computer science in my school. I know a lot about software, hardware and am mediocre at python. I decided to put my skills to a practical environment while also earning some money for my wellbeing and further education. Therefore I decided to plan out a small career for the next few years to earn money and do something productive. However I do not know what the best choice is. I mostly want to repair and build computers for people however I doubt people will need help, I also feel like I'm not skilled enough to program for people. Therefore what is the best choice to go through. Will building computers and repairing them for people be practical? How will I do it? How will I start? Please give me some good opportunities I can work with as I also want to gain recognition and improve my wellbeing and wallet. Thank you, I'm looking forward to your replies 😊

 

[USAFRet]

Therefore what is the best choice to go through.

What is your planned school situation for the next few years?

 

[ceriumin]

What is your planned school situation for the next few years?

So I have planned out to do A-Levels after I finish my last year of High School, and hopefully get into university, after university possibly begin a career as an adult. However I wanted to be productive in my early years and earn a small amount of earnings enough for myself and education. However it doesn't matter what amount of money, I would rather do something I like doing, earn a decent amount of money and reputation

 

[USAFRet]

Potential university - Concentrate on that.
PC building - That's pretty much a non-starter. You have no rep, and can't compete on price/support.
PC Repair/software fixes - This is a maybe. Start with family/friends. Do their things, and maybe they'll refer you to paying customers. This will be pocket money at best.

 

[ceriumin]

Potential university - Concentrate on that.
PC building - That's pretty much a non-starter. You have no rep, and can't compete on price/support.
PC Repair/software fixes - This is a maybe. Start with family/friends. Do their things, and maybe they'll refer you to paying customers. This will be pocket money at best.

I'll have a look at repairing, I repair some of my friends computer and its always successful, I'll try to have a look at ways to start unless you would like to provide some information on how to start and get recognised?

 

[USAFRet]

I'll have a look at repairing, I repair some of my friends computer and its always successful, I'll try to have a look at ways to start unless you would like to provide some information on how to start and get recognised?

At this level, you get recognized by word of mouth.
"My nephew/neighbors son/student is REALLY good. He fixed my PC. Let me put you in contact with him"

 

[Math Geek]

word of mouth is how i started myself. i just made it clear did not mind if my name/number was passed on to others that needed pc help.

it took a bunch of years, but after 10 years or so of actively looking to earn as much as possible on the side, i was able to quit teaching and am now self employed fixing pc's, custom builds and so on. i am not rich but i make enough to live off of no problem. the key is quality work at a good price. i don't charge a bunch but i make up for it with volume now. the majority of what i do now is fixing problems caused by windows pitiful updates. every update seems to mess up something else. i pay attention, make sure i know how to fix the problems and i handle a ton of these each week. i may only charge $25 to fix the problem, but 25 times a week and it adds up!!

couple years ago i looked to expand out into small networks. this was work i turnd down for years due to not having the right knowledge to do it right. so i've been learning networking and cybersecurity.

i'd suggest if you can't make it work with fixing the pc's, look into some certifications and see about some internships or other entry level industry work. even at 16 yrs odl or so, having net+, security+ and even CCNA should open some doors for you to get started. there are plenty of quality courses you can take that are free or very cheap that can help get those certs pretty easily. i paid $12 for a high quality CCNA course on Udemy that got me through the CCNA in a couple months of study and practice...

 

[Rehan Essani]

So I have planned out to do A-Levels after I finish my last year of High School, and hopefully get into university, after university possibly begin a career as an adult. However I wanted to be productive in my early years and earn a small amount of earnings enough for myself and education. However it doesn't matter what amount of money, I would rather do something I like doing, earn a decent amount of money and reputation

Hey! If you're capable to do content writing projects or if you have idea about how to use Photoshop just like making social media posting and logos so you have to make fiver account with some creative gigs then you can catch customers and earn decent amount of money online.

 

[ceriumin]

Hey! If you're capable to do content writing projects or if you have idea about how to use Photoshop just like making social media posting and logos so you have to make fiver account with some creative gigs then you can catch customers and earn decent amount of money online.

Wow, I had actually never planned that out. I am mostly good at programming therefore I could possible earn a few bucks by programming different things for people, or I could start to learn photoshop, always wanted to. Thank you very much!

 

[Math Geek]

when i first started at the end of high school i learned CAD. this was a long time ago and most work was still done on paper. companies sent me paper plans and i'd convert them to CAD for them. was a nice side gig and it paid well for the time.

probaly not gonna work now but if you can find something similar that is emerging tech and get good at it. you could do well for yourself. for instance cloud stuff is pretty new and people are learning a the go.

docker is a powerful tool that saves a lot of resources. perhaps you can use the programming knowledge to learn how to make and manage docker images. other similar cloud needs would also be a good idea. docker is not too hard to learn. 've made a few images for myself in practice with only a little bit of skills in that area.