[plug] [OT] After Year 12

[chris]

Hi Tim,

While your still < 18 I would suggest getting some part-time work at one
of the many places this will employ people under the age of 18 while the
award rates are still lower. 

It becomes much harder to find employment when you are over 18 (without
prior experience) and they need to pay you more. Even though it will be
non-IT work it is still an area you can fall back on (even later in
life) to earn money while things are quiet in IT and your paying your
own rent and bills.

As for working in IT I would suggest as well doing more physical service
based stuff such as fixing PCs setting up networks. This is the type of
thing that people will always need locals to do. While your doing that
you can talk to them and sell them programing services.

I spent a lot of time looking for work and ended up becoming
self-employed so you should always see starting your own business as a
possible option but as a manager/technician/entrepreneur your business
can only grow so far before you reach your human limits.

 For this reason you should put together a proper organisational chart
that will plot out and plan the different roles in your business that
can be assigned to other people allowing it to scale.
   
Lots of small businesses also can't afford to employ staff so will
contract work out to people (especially for small programming projects)
so it is a good idea to get an ABN.  

thanks,

Chris Caston

On Wed, 2004-08-04 at 05:08, Tim White wrote:
> Hi.
> Some of you may know me personally and others just from inrequent posts. 
> My name is Tim in case you hadn't read my header and I am currently in 
> year 12.
> As some of you may know I have a passion in computers, mainly 
> programming. This as taken me to Canberra to attend the AIC selection 
> school twice.
> I have been using linux since the start of the year that the last Debian 
> 2.2.X was released around Sept (If you can remember which year it was 
> please tell me, I am think 2001 as 3.0 was released 2002)
> Since then I have picked up a greater desire to program and am often 
> found spending a whole weekend developing an application[1] instead of 
> doing study or homework. I don't enjoy study or homework unless it is on 
> a computer. I am alright at Calculus[2] and Applicable maths. I am also 
> doing physics, geography and English all of which I can do if I study 
> harder.
> I have topped WA in the UNSW Computer Competition 3 out of 4 years so I 
> am confident that I have skills in the computer area apart from the fact 
> that I enjoy it heaps.
> Apart from the fact that I hate school and am not looking forward to the 
> upcoming TEE exams I am still going to do them. What I am writing this 
> for is guidance. I really enjoy programming especially when it can help 
> someone else other than just me. I am not sure of what to do after year 12.
> I know that there is Computer Science and Software Enginerring that I 
> can do at Uni but I'm not sure if I want to.
> I also know that I can't live off prgramming for the Open Source 
> community unless my work is so good that donations come pouring in or I 
> get commercial customers [3]
> I am open to any suggestions. Also if you know away that I can combine 
> my love for lighting (thearter) with computers/programming then please 
> tell me.
> Thanks
> Tim
> [1] As most of you can't know I am developing a web based chat client 
> similar to IRC which will soon be found at http://ihcc.sourceforge.net
> (In the next week or so) or for an old version 
> http://plug.linux.org.au/~linuxalien/public/talk/. Any guesses on what I 
> was doing last week end considering it is now on SF
> [2] If I study/do home work
> [3] Side note, what license should I release an application under if I 
> wish for it to be free for general public but not for commercial use?
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