I am 16, i am skilled at website management, and i am not that lazy compared to my mates, but to be honest, i am slightly lazy and i slack slightly. However, do you take teenagers like me seriously? I ask because i fear that despite the age-discrimination laws introduced in the last 2-3 years, i will still not be able to get the job i want in 2weeks time when i leave school for good. I have 96.3% attendance in 06/07. I am predicted all C's for my grades. I am very intelligent, but i have to 'age' before i can get the job i want. The law doesnt work, and employers are breaking the age-discrimination laws. Rob ps: Public poll.
It's a sad fact that most people in the UK judge people by their GCSEs, A-levels and university qualifications before anything else. Leaving school with only GCSEs is a risky business because most people have at least A-levels nowadays so, in all likelihood, there may be people with better academic qualifications who are targeted first by employers. Choosing someone with GCSEs and a bit of life experience over someone who has just left school with the same GCSEs isn't age discrimination. Probably not the answer you wanted to hear. Incidentally, which job are you after?
I agree with CountryBoy It's not your age that makes it hard to get a job, its the fact that you have little experience and are only educated to GCSE level. I'm guessing the area you want to go into is web developement in which case most of the people I work with in that area have a least A-Level qualifications and around 75% have a degree. Why did you choose to leave education at a young age? If you're predicted C at GCSE level its easy enough to get into a college and improve your skill set.
as has been said, its just qualifications and life experience. if you went to college then uni and worked for those years you were there. How would you feel if a job you went for at 21 or whatever with that behind you and the job went to a 16 year old just out of school? employers want the best skills and experience they can get so they see it the same way. plus most 16/17 year olds dont last more than 1 year in their first job as most arent sure what they want to do in life yet, in my experience anyway. so a employer is taking a risk training one up.
age should not be a factor, rather the quality or the work and the dedication that you show matters more! i do take kids seriously! though in india it is considered as child labour, so i can't take them to work!!
I expect my teenage programmer to be a precocious little genius if I am to take him/her seriously. But I guess it is not out of the question.
I think it would be generalizing but I don't take them as seriously (bad I know) and kind of hypocritical as I use to work when I was 16 (online). Best thing to do is to hide your age or to not mention it.. people naturally (in general) believe this.. it's a stereotype.. I know. For offline jobs, it's a bit trickier..
That's sad to hear mate. But IMO, age is not a big factor at all. Being old doesn't mean higher standard of work. --Joe
Very true But I think it's because people tend to correlate age with maturity and education. Ah.. how society works
When someone is 16 he/she is not a kid anymore. That's it! I know someone who's 13 and he's simply great at PHP.
That's the problem in our society. We always equate maturity and responsibility with age. I guess it's time to give our youth a chance to prove themselves.
If you work online, you've no need to tell people your age. Their perception of you will be entirely based upon how you interact with them.
Experience is everything when it comes to getting employed - you just need to find someone who's willing to give you your first chance.
This might be an over generalization, but I'm good at those Age isn't as important IMO as degree and experience. You're hard pressed to find a quality job in USA without a degree.
Well, most employers still expect 16 year olds to be in education, so perhaps thats the reason they may not get taken seriously in the world of work.
If you were to show me some of your work and if you had good feedback/reputation i would hire you regardless of your age.
If you are really skilled at website management and intelligent as you say, why would you bother whether if other people take you seriously or not, many of the internet richies have started their business before their 20's. Age would be no excuse to what you can't achieve on internet.
I agree with LeoSeo. If you are good at web development, and you want to do that full time working for yourself, you basically do not need to worry about getting a good job anyway. I am 18 and I am just finishing my A-Levels to which I haven't done amazing on, but I am not going to uni. Not because of my grades, but because I just don't want to. I plan to get a job probably part-time, and in my spare time develop my web development skills. Then when I consider them sufficiently developed I am going to leave my job and go freelance full time. Don't worry about people taking you seriously, if you have the skills, age won't matter.