I've worked as an SDE at two of the big five tech companies. By far the most common route to getting a first job at these companies is to start with a college i

I've worked as an SDE at two of the big five tech companies. By far the most common route to getting a first job at these companies is to start with a college internship and continue from there. Basically with only a high school education you wouldn't get an interview, and I'd say pre-university work experience is not too important in the application process either. I'd recommend focusing on your studies first - take the time to learn about graphics or AI or some topic that interests you and will help you succeed in university. You can worry about getting a job afterwards. Personally I had small jobs making web pages before college but the first programming jobs on my resume were with scientific research groups at university.