Age a Factor in Web Work?

I don't think that from experience many companies would hire anyone under 18. At the age of 14 (even a lot of 18 years olds!) you just don't have the 'life skills' to be able to maturely handle a business situation (I'm not saying all 14 year olds are immature before you slaughter me!) and although the 14 year old may produce good work, clean code etc as a comapny they want to deal with someone of a reasonable age and not someone still at school. May be as work experience or something but not to pay them.

This isn't a dicussion on whether 14 year olds can code, program, design but whether a company who wants a website would really deal with someone that young.

I agree with Julia.

At 16, I can honestly say that I lack the marketing, client-dealing, legal/accounting, and other general skills that best come with age. These are what most employers desire.

Young 'uns like myself also do not have credibility and authority — in the eyes of prospective dealers and customers. This can be a huge disadvantage.

Well sure, if the employer is looking for a hamster-in-a-wheel whiz kid to sit in a corner all day producing magical code, then he can certainly look in the lower age-groups.

Sidenote: I've recently been looking for a good local paid host myself, but almost every company with worthwhile packages restricts their services to 18+'s only.

Go figure.

I also think that there is a difference in whether it's to actually work for the company as an employee, in which case as soon as you get to employable age then they may take you on, or whether they are just contracting out to a company to just build the website as they would buy any product, in which case I think most employers would think twice and then age certainly is a factor.

Yeah. Most of my 'clients' are actually people I found through a bit of networking: friends of friends of friends of parents, acquaintances, 'client' referrals and such.
Every one of them was looking for cheap service, and hired only after reassurance from an adult...

But it helps very much in the inital portfolio-building.

I started work as a webdesigner aged 16, however that was all i did. webdesign. no quoting, no meetings just pure unadulterated webdesign. (and i was crap cos i haddnt been doing it for long!)

I'm 20 now and still designing websites, however i have a lot more business knowledge now, the kind of knowledge that can only really be gained from working.

Thats the problem with young-uns they don't have the experience in a working enviroment to know how to deal with clients...

Also most young kids (not all tho) may understand the basics of html, however to make a site work perfectly in all browsers and OS's whilst integrating a large relational database needs a mature brain and experience.

The great thing about kids that are 14 or so, is that they have no fear and can think outside the box. It seems that the older you get, the harder it is to think outside the box. It is easy to develop a herd mentality. Coding may be a bit different since it often requires more discipline than most younger folks have. The greatest strength at that age is probably designing.

I don't necessarily think that age is a definite factor in producing good- or bad- code. I've seen older people write bad code too (or worse yet, rely on FrontPage!) It's really more of a matter of experience. If you started writing HTML at 13, you could be a master by 15. I don't see a problem with that.

I also find that younger people aren't always the most creative. I know of a certain segment of sites, mostly designed by teenagers, that often have very similar design styles. They seem to be copying off each other. Of course, that's not to say that older people wouldn't do the same...

As for starting a business at a young age, if I was a potential client I would really be hesitant about hiring someone that young. I just wouldn't expect a 14-year old to be responsible or experienced enough, unless I knew that person and their family and had evidence of their personality. But again, that's not to say that there are no older irrisponsible business owners either...

I also think that this may be the reason why many small business owners shy away from the web - they think that all websites are designed by 15 year olds working out of their basements.

I can understand when someone starts their own company at around 16-17 years old, but 12, 13, 14... It's a little too young IMHO. Also hardly any teen has the experience to make good business decisions or handle a setbacks if they happen. What if you do a contract with a teen and he/she goes against the contract, do you think it will hold in court? I guess it depends on what kind of work you need done, I wouldn't mind having a teen design a logo for us that takes an hour to finish.

For all the people supporting 14 year olds, I support you! I am 14 and I started coding at 9-10 and I can write code that challenges adults' code. And you talk about immaturity, some 14 year olds are far more mature than their peers. Now I wouldn't say that I could manage a buisness and tackle all the things that a buisness entails... but I could sell some simple services like image design or even web design. I know age would make a difference if people wanted to hire me, but there are ways that that can be made to matter less...

Just my 14 cents

I don't think any one doubts any 14 year olds ability to build, design or code. They are skills that are learned and don't realy depend on age, I was 27 when I learned but doesn't mean that I can do it better than someone younger or worse than anyone older!

The issue for me is experience. And like it or not, when you're older, you've had more time to gain that experience. Whether you have or not, of course, is why we have the interview process...

S

Hmmm....interesting discussion....

I gotta sit on the fence on this one, just watch out for splinters!

If I had styarted young (<25) I would probably be designing for a living instead of selling the damn sites. But the Internet is faceless. By that I mean if a 14 year old can talk, code and think like a 30 year old how you gonna know!!! I've been around these forums for a while now and it still amaze me how young some of the members are simply because they do not act their age!

I only wish I had started younger

I guess I could also say that some of the younger clients (20-30yo) were far more open to a younger designer than were the older clients (30+). I suppose, traditionally, teens just don't fit in the "business image."

It's not the age, it's the accomplishments
I am 15... have coded since 11... and I won't do a job if someone cares that I'm young

I think you can't group people into stereotypes... young people aren't creative, young people are creative, young people are snotty, older people are snotty, older people are closed minded, older people are creative... etc etc

My crazy idea: Make an internet rating system based on accomplishments... you are 'age' 1 when you start programming, and experts are 'age' 99 or so... woh would implement it though?

Crazily,
Have a nice day (crazy too)

It depends really, they still have great talent but they couldnt fit it into a web related job without alot of help to get to know the buisness side of it. i just turned 14 and i wouldnt know how to do the buisness side of it, so some points i can agree with and some i cant.

I agree and disagree to alot of the points here. I started HTML programming about a year and a half ago, I've done many sites, about interests and such like. I do hate the fact that adults don't think we can do as good a job as they can. I've designed many websites. But my problem is that because I am still at school and such like, I don't ever seem to finish many sites. I can produce the code, the graphics, do a few of the scripts, but the content will usually loose me. I often just stop half way through a project and usually when I'm really pleased with teh design. But I stop, it annoys me like hell, because I WANT to finish the project. Honestly, Yes, I could completely code and design a website for someone, I don't think I could do it on a business scale but i COULD DESIGN and CODE.
I know I'm not the best of designers:
http://accursed.co.uk and http://greenhouse.cjb.net. But I enjoy it. And honestly If and a big IF, IF i really pushed myself I could do Design for a business scale.

So my strong and weak points that must show some "maturity", and thats my say.

I dont think age has a lot to do with it.

I've been building sites for about 4 years now, and i'm 26. I do a lot of games related websites and have seen people of all ages make fantastic looking websites with little more than frontpage 97 and notepad.

It's got a lot to do with how well they can picture a website, if they cant imagine what it looks like in their mind AFTER its finished then they will end up blindly coding stuff.

The point most of were trying to make Katie is that at a very young age you may well be able to create fabulous websites with great designs and validated code but where age does go against them is from a business perspective as many companies wont give business to anyone so young.

Again I agree. If I set up a webdesign business, sure if I got 4 or 5 orders a month that would be fine. But it's a Circular situation. If, which it think I am , your an average webmaster then the 4 or 5 will tell others, and withing a year could multiply up to 20 or 25 a month and then I would be overloaded with making web pages for Local Flower companys. Or making a Flash Game for the local community site. And that would interfere with my schooling. Sure as much as I would prefer to make Sites in school all day I know my schooling is important, even if it's just to get a degree in Computer Science, English, ICT and programming. Or whatever. Also, you have to have more than one on a team, I would never dream of employing an adult to work on my company (yet), nor would tehy do the same. And so I would have to hire someone my age to help with all the designs. But then your stuck because the 3 or 4 people who who just might be able to do the site arn't interested.

I'm sure that doesn't make sense. hehe.

I'm 16 years old. I've been called everything ranging from too smart for someone as young as you, to being called a pure genius. I've had oppurtunities with book contracts regarding Javascript, and at the forums I regularly visit, have been told that people wish they knew half as much as I did. This extends beyond Javascript to virtually everything W3C pushes, and web applications work with Java, C#, etc.

I still don't get regular jobs though, but I think its more location than anything - I've been told that if I lived 6 hours south, I would be able to make 30k-40k a year part time (doing stuff in between homework assignments) for what I know and regularly do. Less of an age issue, and more of living out in the middle of Nowhere, northern Maine.