Looking for some guidance.

[laxman144]

I'm just looking for some advice on a few things. I'm 17 and I really want to do something with computers for my career, whether it's hardware or software engineering, multimedia, web developer or something I'm not sure yet. But I was wondering how to start preparing for something like that. Anybody that has any advice on what they might do or have done, or information about their career and how they got their, what college they went to, what their major was or any useful information. Anything would be really helpful, at the moment I don't really know which direction to go in.

 

[paulmr]

well do you hobby in any of those areas now.... do you build your own pcs or made a personal webpage

are you more of a creative person or a mechanically inclined person....

basically what I am saying if the first place to start is figure out what you like to do...

I love working on the hardware of computers but I hate programming... boring and don't have the math skills.... like wise you might find it boring to figure out if a computer is not working because of say a power supply or faulty RAM but enjoy the applicable part of computing like web design or even really cool things like special effects and game design

2nd step is find opportunity now to do some of those things.

I don't mean a job but more like personal hobby if hardware is the way you want to go just the experience of building you own computer or helping someone else... it's also amazing how many old computers and parts you can get your hands on for cheap and often free just to mess around with.

as far as education goes take any class you can also keep a look out for connections with people doing what you want to do. People love to impart their knowledge to those interested in their own field kind of like having an apprentice and they might be your mentor which might even open up future jobs or internships later or at least a good reference

and step 3 be employed somewhere even in high school and during college not only will it help the resume but work ethic is not learned in the classroom ie.. don't know how many college grads I have seen hired in places I have work just to be fired for not showing up on time