I wonder if this is something that would be good for my son to learn.

Anyone?

He is technically and artistically inclined..

How soon does he expect to enter the economy?

From what I hear from my friends, it's not really any better or any worse than other sectors. Just average.

Also, he must be able to work with people well. His clients are going to ask him to do stuff that looks horrible, then he'll do it, and be blamed because it looks horrible. Or he can try to convince them that it's going to look horrible while also trying not to get fired.

But, from what I've heard of him, he doesn't care much what other people think. He's got to at least be able to pretend to if he wants to do websites. 

No, I would say he works very well with people. He's polite as can be, and very respectful. I've watched him mess with getting his playstation fixed and he really handles himself well.

Also, he is contacted by people all over to edit their dancing videos - which he does. I asks him if he asks for anything in return and I was happy when he said he did. He asks the to sub to his channel (youtube) and like his vids - so he has this whole exchange of energy / mutual benefit concept down.

I ask this because I think we would be good at it. He's an extreme tinkerer.

http://www.elsaelsa.com/astrology/2006/08/19/criminal-minds-they-run-in-families-mercury-in-aries-and-a-scorpio-mars/

I don't know how the market is, but there are people who need graphic designers so that a website can be nice to look at, and be presentable (more than just a massive block of text).

I don't know how things will look like when Pluto in Aquarius could possibly make technology look repulsive, but at this point in time, graphic design is a feasible route.

What about maintaining sites, rather than design. I just wonder if he should take it upon himself to learn how to do this. Like on this site, things go wrong and HQ (or friends) have to fix them. Things are needed and they have to build them and intergrate them into the site. This seems a good skill to have...but I really don't know so I'm asking!

Also, I don't necessarily mean as a career. Just a way he can make money when he's in college.

I think learning how to maintain a website and dealing with website crashes/downtime is an excellent skill to have, and computer hobbies are a great way of acquiring this skill. Usually, people need admin access on a website to learn how to do this, but it's very helpful when needed.

It could be an interesting way of making money in college, and he'll probably be able to juggle both his work and his studies.

I think it would be better than knocking on doors, shoveling snow. I do think he has the aptitude. He may or may not love it, but fact is, this kid as got to start thinking about how he's going to support himself... not incur tons of debt and stuff.

The kids he's helping now, may be his future clients.

My friend does this, she does okay from what I've heard. She supports herself.

Her biggest problem from what she's told me is people thinking they don't have to pay. It's in the ether, it's creative, it's not "work".

I've been designing (and maintaining) websites for over a dozen years.  I'm not sure what the market is like where you are.  Mine is very small, mostly mom/pop small businesses.  Because of this, I not only do their web design, but very often the whole package, logo design, letterhead, business cards, etc.

I'm self-taught.  I don't know how easy it is to do that these days.  In the beginning 'everyone' was figuring things out (HTML, Java, CSS, etc), so sharing that experience was freely done... now- not so much.

I may not make a huge income, but partly that is because I work alone and only want to work so many hours in a day.  I could get more work ($$) if I wanted to by advertising, listing myself on freelance websites, etc... but, I'm perfectly content with the amount of work I have and the money is really secondary in my case.

No matter what sort of career your son gets into, chances are he's going to have to have a website of his own someday.  Knowing how they work, how to maintain it himself, would be very valuable to him- so, in my mind, that means that it wouldn't be a waste of knowledge if he were to learn it, even if he doesn't end up designing for a living.

Here, if you can write the code, you have a job. Computer Science students have some of the highest drop out rates at Universities, but simply because they have hard time finding time to study. And the market won't be shrinking, with internet based services such as Netflix and online shopping sites taking bigger and bigger stake yearly. Also, smart phone applications are a biggie, and it would be a good idea to learn Linux, on which Android is already based on and on which they are developing at least 2-3 other operational systems. 

Yes,  there's fierce competition from India, but companies here need people to do the trouble shooting faster than they can deliver. Nothing wrong with their skills, but the work culture is extremely hierarchical, making things very slow at times. I don't know how this should be any different in The US.

I am going to suggest this to him, see what he says. It would be a higher wage then he could make doing many other things. Bottom line, I don't think there are going to be jobs lying around, easy to get so I don't think it's too soon to learn a skill that has value.

Esla, as I commented... I was self-taught at a time when there was a lot of support from others figuring their way around at the same time.  I would be happy to pay that forward.  If I can be of help in anyway, please don't hesitate to ask.

Thank you, CArRiE. THat is incredibly generous - I appreciate it. I think you'd like working with him. He's very funny; he's nice and respectful and tries real hard to do the right thing. :)

I'm sure I would Elsa.  Feel free to give him my email, if he's interested.

He's interested.

"But who would hire me? I'm 14."

"No one knows you're 14, or cares. You put your own website out there with your name. If you can do this, you'll get work. It's a lot better then asking people if you can walk their dog. I think you have all the skills you need to do something like this. Make yourself and expert and by the time you're 18, you'll have a full-fledged business, you can take jobs or not, depending on how busy you are in school or whatever..."

I was a webmaster from 1995-2008 - I think, in addition to coding/design skills, one of the most important skills were communication.

Ability to take technical concepts and talk to non-tech people and also drag from them what they really wanted LOL.

I agree with Candela, handheld and end user devices will all work on some kind of web app. 14 is good time to start in my view. i also think like astrology and accountancy IT skills are global in nature. All the best to him. Jilly i understand your point, ability to find commmon ground between IT and business is a huge challenge.