I thank everyone who had constructive comments, I am taking them on board and will be considering my options.
For now I remain open and would like to keep this route an option and see if by chance anyone has any opportunities or leads.

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best of luck in your quest David - I do hope something challenging and fulfilling comes your way.

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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!

Here's my own real numbers since no one has yet mentioned money.

Back in the day (ok, ok: 1997) when I was in college between 1st and 2nd year I worked in a Irish hardware company in their software (device drivers) department. I wrote a regression test harness and numerous tests in TCL/TK (for UNIX portability). I worked there 9-5 for 3 months and accomplished what would now take me a week or two of solid effort. For my troubles I earned the vast sum of £150 punts per week, which was pretty crap but the experience was gold.

Between 2nd and 3rd year I worked in Dell in Limerick, this time in "Software Validation". Again it was testing, but this was monkey work, monotonous, boring, and quite well paid. I did loads of overtime and although I can't remember exact amounts, I ended up with enough money to pay for a new top end PC and finance the guts of a year of socialising. The experience looked good on the CV but in terms of technical skills I had learned 1000 times more the first year.

And after 3rd year I got a full time job as a developer on solid wages with a software multinational. Somewhat based on my education, but the boss told me it was mainly that I had good experience for a 3rd year grad. I knew that on paper I did, but my Dell experience looked better than it actually had been. Swings and roundabouts.

I'd recommend you find a small company (or big company with a small team) and do a solid 9-5 for 2-3 months. It'll stand to you and you should get good experience - not all necessarily technical, mind! And after that who knows, you can go freelance full time or go to college or go into full employment.

David, I have a non-paying "tidy up this script" job if you want some extra experience for your CV and possibly a reference. It's related to Dole.ie - Every job from every job website.

The non-paying bit is due to me being Mr. Poor at the moment.

Sure "dude", swing it this way over PM/email. (daviddoranmedia [@] gmail.com)
Provided it is not too long 1k/2k lines, I'll do it. (time is money)

@Trojan: Thanks for the personal insight there, it is very refreshing to get a real-world look into the college/job scene. I have all but decided to do work in a networks company as in-house programmer and router config for the 2/3 months which should be solid and pays pretty well for my age (€12/ph). Hopefully at the end of the summer I'll have the Zend PHP5 Cert and Cisco CCNA, which would be a great bonus on top of the experience and the money.

hey, good luck to you, not that you are going to need it.
By the sound of it and seeing some work you have done, I could say you'll get far.
Don't let the age stop you. Indeed you might get peanuts for your work at the moment, but it will be well worth it in the end.

There is a good example from Trojan.
We all have to start somewhere, and it's always from the bottom unfortunately.

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First things first - it's great to see you have a passion for the industry. It's refreshing to see someone so young (at the risk of sounding patronising) who is also enthusiastic, passionate and with a penchant for learning/not standing still on his laurels. Good for you, you'll go far!

Now, a quick reality check - you're only 17 and you'll need a good 3 or 4 years commercial experience before you can demand well-paying work. Obviously that depends on what your definition of that is of course. When you start paying for things like mortgages, a car, etc. then a well-paid post grad salary is really just pittance. The cold, hard fact is that most of us had to start on a rubbish salary just get experience. My first salary was IR£12,000 per annum. Crap money and just about enough to keep me going while living at home with my folks!

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I know I'm a little late to the party here but let me put in my 2 cent

Being a 6th year student who has done the whole looking for work thing I probably should be studying right now but I'll rattle off my story instead (hey, it's not the end of the world!)

From my (limited) experience its all about who you know.

Have you done 4th year? If so you are in a much better position then if you had not done it.

In my school we had two different one week work placements scheduled for us, for my first placement I went and worked in the IT department of company a where my dad works. I spent the week going through a checklist and installing and configuring pc's and plugging them in along with new IP phones

However for my second week, I went to a telco, got a name, pestered him a bit and eventually got a work placement in there. I did some basic tech support, answering phones etc.

That summer I was offered a summer job in both companies and I decided to head off to the telco (working with family is just down right painful) where I spent the summer doing tech support mainly and some writing of internal docs

Next summer then offered a position by boss I worked for in company a who now works in company b instead. Offered position in telco doing different project (cost analysis etc) went back to telco instead

This summer so far I've heard again from boss A in company B and we'll see what else comes up again (however with exams taking up pretty much all of June. I'm not sure if they'd be interested in the bones of two months)

Thanks Conor, I actually read your blog a while back and was astounded how similar are stories are. I was hoping to see you at Barcamp.

Yes, I did 4th year and the work experience and generally the extra time to work and learn was invaluable. I got work experience in a Web Design company and got some subsequent work.

I started doing work in the company my dad works in (Networks/VOIP) and now do internal systems and generally different bits and bobs integrating the systems. I've got quite a bit of work from just generally being there, because by word of mouth people hear what I can do and then they hear of those people etc..

Thanks for the perspective, I think my current decision to work in the Networks/VOIP company is the best available.