I'm 18, and you seem a bit more experienced than me, but here's my advice: find something you're interested in working on and do that. You've already found this

I'm 18, and you seem a bit more experienced than me, but here's my advice: find something you're interested in working on and do that. You've already found this — your open source work — and that's great. I spent two summers during highschool working at a physics lab. I understood very little of the physics but learned a huge amount about programming — data collection, shipping, and analysis in particular. I'm sure any lab would love to pay you for your help. Something else you could do is take a look at the Hacker News Jobs board [0] and look for a company that is working on something you're interested in. Even if they're not advertising for an intern, it might be worth it to send them an email. That's how I got my current job. You're clearly very good at both programming and impressing people (these are both important skills! [1]). If you're really in need of some money to fund your side projects, turn to Craigslist and offer your services as a tutor, maybe in more things than just programming. Again, this is something I did that worked well — adults will easily pay you $20/hr. if you know what you're talking about. [0] http://news.ycombinator.com/jobs http://news.ycombinator.com/jobs [1] http://carl.flax.ie/dothingstellpeople.html http://carl.flax.ie/dothingstellpeople.html