What advice would you give to a 13 year old?

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Posted on Sun 17 Jan 2010 10:00

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On Wednesday night I will be attending an open evening at our local college. The event is intended to provide advice and guidance to students currently in year 9 in the form of a careers evening. My company will be one of several representing the IT industry.

Preparing for the meeting has made me think about the way that technology and the way that it is used is changing at an ever increasing rate. I have been very lucky in what I have worked on and what I have learned over the years, but when I started there was no "prior experience" everything was a new and exciting opportunity. Nowadays technology is changing at a rapid rate and new ideas are appearing every few months. It is harder than ever to keep up.

A 13 or 14 year old student has around 4 years before going to university and probably another 3 or 4 before he or she enters the world of employment. Think back to what was "state of the art" say 5 years ago compared with today, then try and imagine what we will be doing and experiencing in the next 5-10 years. Although what we know and learn today will be useful experience, It in itself will almost certainly be totally replaced within that time period and almost as laughable as trying to explain DOS to a GUI generation.

So I have my thoughts about what is required to move ahead in this field, but I am very interested to hear other peoples thoughts and comments. 

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