Hi, I'm a 17 years old web developer (still in school, not from the us), is there any way that a guy like me will be able to find a job to start gain experience? I searched all over the internet, in upwork no one answer me when I try to contact them and the other all wants 1 or 2 years of experience or a degree...

@clubmax27 yeah but I have no idea how to find a freelancer jobs... 😅

@Floydian well that was my next question, But before you have a girlfriend you need money no?

It is hard, but not impossible. It will be specially hard to get something without a portfolio. Try having an active github account, your own website and projects that go beyond hello worlds or todo apps and take special consideration on(this sucks) how appealing they are.

Stick to the best coding practices, since if your apps are not "strong enough" in what they do they should at least show the best practices and standards, that is sometimes enough to make a lead developer vouch for you.

Don't get discouraged, this field is full of the most insensitive assholes you will ever meet(which says something from me as a military veteran, you would expect me to have had my fair share of idiots and assholes in the military...but programmers are worse)

@AleCx04

And do not neglect schooling. Regardless of what anyone says, your first go at a tech company will seldom be the kind hearted and interested lead(see how far fetched that sounds), but it will be HR, 17 year old+no school+no projects = disadvantage.

So keep going at it, build stuff and don't stop.

@AleCx04 thx for that great comment! but let's say I have a portfolio and a few projects, how can I start advertising my self? because if I have all of this but no one knows about this it doesn't worth much

@clubmax27 but as I said, at least in upwork, no one ever responded back to me... and I tried to send like a 100 applications...

@Alice then I might still have a chance?

@JordMan well you really don't, you keep it up online and when a job opportunity comes up you invite them to look(if they have not already) so that they can know who you are.

Unless your site is all SEO magic, it will hardly come up when someone looks for freelance developers. One thing you can do is advertise yourself locally. Get a set of business cards and hand them out on places that you know might be in the need of software related to something you can do e.g where I live there is school apps and logistics apps in need, so i cater to that industry. I can't sell them shopping carts(as an example) because they've no need for it.

If your resume is good enough, some companies, especially start ups might ignore your lack of proper experience. But given that you probably won't be able to work full time, they'll consider you for an internship maybe? Still, you'll get the same market experience.

Start locally. Got local hairdressers start there.
Taxi rank? Start there.
Haven’t got a portfolio? Make one and populate it your personal projects.

There’s always opportunities, just gotta find them & you will. It’s a process like any other.

Try tailoring your resume to the job posting. If you don't have a skill they want, but have done something like it, try to say you have "used something similar to ...". Half the battle is getting past HR. It'll feel like you're copy pasting their post into your resume, but it'll work.

It depends on where you live and how flexible company's around you are.. I started coding In March cause I decided I wanted to be a front end developer so I made some work. Like a sample of a responsive web design, a landing page with video background and some other simple component and I just applied to the company near me who had a position open for the past few months. I just applied for an internship tho so that way I gain experience without them "wasting" money on me. Guess I got lucky cause I now work at a super flexible and chill company that's only a couple meters away from my house. And I'm learning a lot of stuff and expect my contract within 3 months! 😁

Get out to meet ups, network, and have your work on display (but make sure it's the most beautiful code and design)

To be honest I'm on the same boat, did one year uni and now I'm looking for work, since uni stuff is old news, and if you get out there and talk to anyone willing to listen, you'll get offers.

Do something like a sample project a show your skills , then send it to companies , in this age u have just w ways: first, wait for growing up . second , ve god damn great coder.😶

thx a lot everyone!