Possible First Job For Tech Enthusiast

[Teslas Fate]

Hi I'm currently 14 and already thinking about jobs what and as the title say what would be a good starting job for techy ppl

[wasab]

Apply at your local best buy. If you work hard, you may work your way into manager position. 

[Hackentosher]

Work at a local computer repair shop. A local place, not a chain.

[dalekphalm]

11 hours ago, Hackentosher said:

Work at a local computer repair shop. A local place, not a chain.

That, I would say, is rather picky advice. Many areas don't have local places, and those that do, often cannot afford to hire a new part time employee. If possible? Certainly. But saying "not a chain" is frankly just bad advice.

 

Places like Best Buy or Staples - while not perfect - are definitely excellent ways to gain experience with tech and computers. Especially if you want to go into PC Repair.

 

12 hours ago, Teslas Fate said:

Hi I'm currently 14 and already thinking about jobs what and as the title say what would be a good starting job for techy ppl

I'd suggest applying at a shop that sells or repairs PC's. Examples:

Best Buy

Micro Center

Canada Computers

Staples

etc

 

Local shops are good too, but that may not even be an option for you.

 

Other then that? I'd start looking into what you want to do as a career. Do you want to go into IT? Do you want to do PC Repairs or Mobile Phone Repairs? Do you want to do Programming/web development?

 

Start planning what High School classes you need to take. Have a look at some College/University courses that you might want to go into, and make sure you take the prerequisites in High School.

[Hackentosher]

4 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

That, I would say, is rather picky advice. Many areas don't have local places, and those that do, often cannot afford to hire a new part time employee. If possible? Certainly. But saying "not a chain" is frankly just bad advice.

 

That's a good point, I didn't even consider that. I live in a very large metropolitan city of like 4 million people. There are chains and local shops everywhere.

4 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

Other then that? I'd start looking into what you want to do as a career. Do you want to go into IT? Do you want to do PC Repairs or Mobile Phone Repairs? Do you want to do Programming/web development?

 

Start planning what High School classes you need to take. Have a look at some College/University courses that you might want to go into, and make sure you take the prerequisites in High School.

This is very good advice for OP. High school is a very important time where you grow so much each year you wouldn't recognize yourself from the beginning to the end of each year. What you think you want to do with the rest of your life will probably change quite frequently, even right as you're about to embark on the path to your future. Spend this time of your life focusing on your studies and developing a good work ethic, and discovering what you're really interested in. I would argue the latter part of my last statement is more important because it can lead to your career. 

 

This may not even be a good time for a job. Some people in my high school did it, but I didn't. I found I was too busy with my coursework, extracurriculars, and hobbies as it was that there was no time to cram a job into my schedule as well. You don't want to overload yourself where your work suffers, your schoolwork suffers, or both suffer. If you do that, you're worse off in the long run.

[dalekphalm]

31 minutes ago, Hackentosher said:

That's a good point, I didn't even consider that. I live in a very large metropolitan city of like 4 million people. There are chains and local shops everywhere.

This is very good advice for OP. High school is a very important time where you grow so much each year you wouldn't recognize yourself from the beginning to the end of each year. What you think you want to do with the rest of your life will probably change quite frequently, even right as you're about to embark on the path to your future. Spend this time of your life focusing on your studies and developing a good work ethic, and discovering what you're really interested in. I would argue the latter part of my last statement is more important because it can lead to your career. 

 

This may not even be a good time for a job. Some people in my high school did it, but I didn't. I found I was too busy with my coursework, extracurriculars, and hobbies as it was that there was no time to cram a job into my schedule as well. You don't want to overload yourself where your work suffers, your schoolwork suffers, or both suffer. If you do that, you're worse off in the long run.

I would suggest it's a good idea to get a part time job at least once during High School, so that you get work experience and build actual work ethic. It'll also help when you're done College and looking for a proper job, since Employers like that you can hold down even a shitty fast food job.

[Guest]

Go to college. Go to summer camps. Study what you want to do. 

[wasab]

Linus starts out at NCIX, if anyone wants to follow his footstep, join a similar retail chain like the best buy I mentioned earlier. 

[wasab]

4 hours ago, fpo said:

Go to college. Go to summer camps. Study what you want to do. 

He's talking about tech jobs as in TECHnicians, not scientists and engineers.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, wasab said:

He's talking about tech jobs as in TECHnicians, not scientists and engineers.

Yeah. Going to summer camps for technology for instance for programming will help him get a headstart on programming later in life. It's something that might edge him into a starting job.

"Hi welcome to bestbuy, what's your experience with computers?"
"I created these programs. I know quite a bit."

 

A lot better than
"I've been around computers my whole life."

[handymanshandle]

22 hours ago, Teslas Fate said:

Hi I'm currently 14 and already thinking about jobs what and as the title say what would be a good starting job for techy ppl

Best Buy, I'm 19 and currently a Customer Service Specialist, hopefully I can get on to the floor in a couple more months. I'd say when you're 16. Try to get your foot in the door as a Customer Service Specialist or Sales Consultant in any department and once you're 18, getting into a position at Geek Squad shouldn't be too hard, I'm not exactly sure if Geek Squad requires GSCAs (Geek Squad Consultation Agent) to be 18 years or older. Though once you turn 18 getting a job is a lot easier.

I worked at a fairly local grocery store for a year before taking the year off to focus on high school lol

[handymanshandle]

1 minute ago, fpo said:

Yeah. Going to summer camps for technology for instance for programming will help him get a headstart on programming later in life. It's something that might edge him into a starting job.

"Hi welcome to bestbuy, what's your experience with computers?"
"I created these programs. I know quite a bit."

 

A lot better than
"I've been around computers my whole life."

Well that certainly helps, but genuinely a passion for technology of course having enough of a passion for helping customers solve problems are big things for the company.

 

 

What helped me in my interview for the position I was hired into Customer Service Spec. is both my passion for technology and wanting to help people have a more smooth experience with their tech. My goal is to learn techniques of what wording resonates well with people for an issue to create a solution, I think I wanna get into some corporate tier of sales or marketing and I think the ground level of that possible career path would be through a retail sales position lol

[kokakolia]

I wish I could just tell you to apply as a helper at a Geomatics (aka land surveying) company. It’s a surprisingly outdoorsy techie job. You typically use a GPS on a quad or a snowmobile all day long. It’s a great way to get into CAD if you miraculously land an office job within the same company. All you need is a thick skin and a breath. No qualifications except for a High School diploma. 

 

And yet...I just can’t. The people who work in the field in Geomatics can be extremely rude. You’ll likely be screamed at all day long and insulted. I believe that almost everyone in this world is good...except for land surveyors...They’re scum. 

[LAwLz]

On 3/13/2019 at 4:23 AM, Teslas Fate said:

Hi I'm currently 14 and already thinking about jobs what and as the title say what would be a good starting job for techy ppl

Some advice, in no particular order:

1) Most of the advice you will get on this site will be shit, because it's written by people who are also ~15 years old and no life experience yet. Take everything with a grain of salt.

 

2) Don't expect too much from your first job. It will most likely be pretty bad. So your focus should be less on "I want a job for a techie like me!" and more along the lines of "I want a job that's somewhat decent".

 

3) Don't focus too much on your future right now. You're only 14 and your taste and view on things will change dramatically over the next 10 years. What you find fun today might not be fun in 4 years. You might find out that you enjoy other things that you haven't even tried yet. That's why I recommend you don't get too narrow minded and try a lot of different things. School is great in that regard because it usually gives you a little taste of everything.

 

4) Having something as a hobby, and working with that are two very different things. You might enjoy building computers for example, but doing that 8 hours a day, ~260 days a year, is probably really really boring. Especially since it's a low-skill job and therefore doesn't pay very well, and you got a lot of competition in getting those few jobs available.

 

5) I would recommend you start looking into what job you would want to have 15 years from now. This is incredibly hard to do, and the answer you come up with today will most likely not be "correct" (in the sense that you still want it 15 years from now), but it's worth thinking about. If you want to work with computers for example, it's good to start looking into what kind of jobs exist, and what you need to get that.

It's also important to try and think of how much work you want to put in. And by that I mean, being a lead developer at some big company might sound intriguing, but that requires a ton of dedication that not many people want or can put in, on top of a certain personality and a smidgen of talent.

Not all jobs are right for all people, even if that person wants that job greatly. If you are having a hard time in school right now for example, then aiming for a job that requires a huge amount of studying might not be a great idea.

 

6) Spend your youth carefully. While having some work experience is good, your number of carefree, responsibility free days are limited and runs out quicker than you can imagine. There is more to life than just working.

[Mycielski]

LAwLz's words confirmed...

[cluelessgenius]

Software developer (26) here:

i would actually advise against it.

i often think id be happier if my job had nothing challiging for me. like if the grocery store paid just as well then id do that just so that when i come home i still have energy to tinker do my own techy stuff. when i write code the whole day for work i really dont feel like starting up the rig whe i get home. im not hungry for it anymore. so if want to do something thechy go ahead but if you want to enjoy tech in your own time id balance that out with a non-techy job. just my opinion