hi david,

firstly, i'm really impressed by the extent of your experience at only 17. web dev is clearly something you take very seriously and have invested an awful lot of time in. i had not even switched on a computer at your age!

hopefully you will be able to find a challenging placement for the summer, but don't despair if you don't. as others have said, you could gain extremely valuable experience by taking on your own project for either one of your own ideas or a friend/relative (and you would still get a bit of a break over the summer instead of 9 to 5ing it!).

there do seem to be a fair few web dev vacancies cropping up these days which is a good sign, but i know where blacknight is coming from. unfortunately, given the low barriers to entry and the fact that loads of people are into web dev and it is a very small industry here, supply usually outweighs demand.

then, a lot of companies are not keen on taking on short term students like you, regardless of how talented or enthusiastic they are. teams are so tight these days, and it takes a company a fair investment of time to get you the way they want you for their setup, that you would probably be about to head back to school by the time that happened...

finally, i would not focus on the money. if you get an interesting offer for the summer, i'd grab it (once it was not financial suicide). you may have figured this out already, but unfortunately traditional web dev work in the small companies that are commonplace is generally not well paid for all that is required of you. in particular, entry level rates tend to be absolutely dire! they will start paying you more (although not necessarily that much more!) once you prove your worth...

good luck!