Short answer: hired by NGO which helped me skill up first.
Long answer: Where I was growing up there was a comp-sci training NGO. Their approach was quite interesting:
Grouping by skill, not by age. You decide which level you attend. You choose your pace—you can progress very quickly, but no one will force you to progress at all.
Competition-oriented—primary activity would resemble IOI. Add lectures, math, sport and psych workshops on top.
Teachers and technical organisers recruited almost exclusively from current top students and recent alumni. Often they would teach one level and partcipate as students at a higher level. This had a bunch of benefits: community vibes, access to smart hard-to-hire people with relevant skills, and opportunity to learn the practical side of things for the team.
Big chunks of the work paid pretty well—like local senior developer effective hourly rates for (top) high school students.
I joined as a student first, did well in some external national and international competitions and then I was asked to join the team.
Did you get the job through connections, personally seeking it out, or something else (technical HS)?
Short answer: hired by NGO which helped me skill up first.
Long answer: Where I was growing up there was a comp-sci training NGO. Their approach was quite interesting:
Grouping by skill, not by age. You decide which level you attend. You choose your pace—you can progress very quickly, but no one will force you to progress at all.
Competition-oriented—primary activity would resemble IOI. Add lectures, math, sport and psych workshops on top.
Teachers and technical organisers recruited almost exclusively from current top students and recent alumni. Often they would teach one level and partcipate as students at a higher level. This had a bunch of benefits: community vibes, access to smart hard-to-hire people with relevant skills, and opportunity to learn the practical side of things for the team.
Big chunks of the work paid pretty well—like local senior developer effective hourly rates for (top) high school students.
I joined as a student first, did well in some external national and international competitions and then I was asked to join the team.
Do you know if this organization still exists or of anything like it? Closest I’m familiar with is the recurse center
It still operates, but I haven’t kept in touch closely enough to know how well it’s doing and what has changed – https://talent.edu.pl/.