A lot of my friends and people I've worked with in the past have kids now that are interested in tech. A typical email I send is:
Hi <x>,
Here are some resources for your <y> once <> enters high school that might be helpful:
* FIRST Robotics: https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/frc
....
* Summer Course at UC Berkeley CS (need to be 16-18 years old): https://precollege.berkeley.edu/commuter
Below is a list of vetted resources that I usually share when people ask me for resources.
| Resource | Category | Deadline | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| ACM/CSTA Cutler-Bell Prize | High School Researcher | ~ January | $10,000 |
| Amazon Future Engineer Scholarship | High School Senior + Financial Need | ~ January | $40,000 |
| CocaCola Scholarship | High School Senior + Pure Merit | ~ October | $20,000 |
| NSA Stokes Scholarship | High School Senior + Pure Merit | ~ October | $30,000 per college year |
| Resource |
|---|
| GitHub Student Developer Pack |
| AWS Student Hub |
| Resource |
|---|
| LeetCode |
| NeetCode |
| Levels.fyi |
| System Design Primer |
All are free. Great way to learn how to build an app in 3 days. I've attended all the hackathons listed below and can attest to the high quality.
| Resource | Accept High Schoolers? | Accept College Students? |
|---|---|---|
| Hack the North - I attended this when I was 15 yrs old. 10/10 recommend. Was one of the first people to experiment with Oculus VR and other new technologies | Yes | Yes |
| PennApps - I attended this multiple times in high school. Lots of great workshops and smart people | Yes | Yes |
| Hack Gen Y - This was my first hackathon when I was 14. Lots of workshops and mentors. | Yes | Yes |
| TreeHacks - This was very well run and was a smaller hackathon. Lots of good prizes too. | No | Yes |
| CalHacks - I got my first internship at Etsy by networking here and talking to engineers and recruiters | No | Yes |
| Resource | Target Demographics |
|---|---|
| CodeNation | High School Students Starting to Program |
| USACO | High School Students Interested in Competitve Programming |
| FIRST Robotics | High School Students (No tech background nec.) |
| MIT Primes Research | HS Students w/ Strong Academics |
| Regeneron Science Competition | HS Students w/ Research Background |
| ISEF Competition | HS Students w/ Research Background |
| Digital Ocean Open Source Contribution Event | Anyone |
| Resource | Accept High Schoolers? | Accept College Students? |
|---|---|---|
| HackNY | No | Yes |
| Kleiner Perkins Fellows | No | Yes |
| Bessemer Fellows | No | Yes |
| Angel List - reach out to startups and create your own internship | Yes | Yes |
| Resource |
|---|
| Google Step |
| TwitterAcademy |
| Facebook University |
| Microsoft Explore |
| Resource | Accept High Schoolers? | Accept College Students? | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AngelList | Yes | Yes | Lots of startups | You have to vet startups carefully - some have toxic workplace cultures. |
| Google Jobs | Yes | Yes | Easy to find what you want | You are applying to jobs that thousands of other people have applied to |
| Yes | Yes | Easy to apply and find jobs |
A lot of these programs are school dependent.
In general, you can contribute to open-source and read research papers in an area and write your own summaries / research. Then, you can reach out to interested professors and research labs.
Many of my friends, including myself conducted research in both high school and college by reaching out to professors and research labs that we were interested in. If you want an example email template, feel free to reach out.
For High school students:
| Resource |
|---|
| HS Research @ UC Berkeleye - must be 16 to 18 yrs old |
For UC Berkeley undergrads:
| Resource |
|---|
| URAP |
I got most of my first interviews through career fairs.
Go to your career fair in college and talk to recruiters.
Some books that I think are helpful:
| Resource |
|---|
| Designing Data Intensive Applications by Martin Kleppmann |
| Composing Programs (https://www.composingprograms.com/) |
| Introduction to Algorithms by Thomas H. Cormen, Charles E. Leiserson, Ronald L. Rivest, and Clifford Stein |
| Algorithms Unlocked by Thomas H. Cormen |