Interview with: Fabian Schultz
This is a project about teenagers, who work as freelancers and are pretty successful at this. I find that today it’s a very common thing to find a teenage designer/developer, who works on a higher level than other professionals. I guess that’s because right now knowledge is very accessible and the Internet is flooded with tutorials and and helpful articles, so everyone can learn. Combined with the fact that my generation has Internet connection form very early age, its only a matter of making the choice if you want to use the web for learning.
The first interview is with Fabian, sixteen years old web designer and developer based in Germany. He is very talanted, you can check his work at dribbble, he also writes at his blog.
1. Fabian, how does it feel to work and make money at this age?
Of course awesome! But I think the fact that I’m freelancing is the crucial point. I mean, there are a lot teenagers in our age who work for smaller companies or so, but if you freelance the clients wants just you, and not a company.
2. Show us your workspace.
3. How do you mix school and work?
It is sometimes really hard and I had to learn to use all the time I’ve got. After school I have some time to work on projects, but I usually work weekends when I have enough time. Design works as an offset to school, and so these two things work together really well for me.
4. Are you self thought? When and how did you learn to design/code?
I am kind of self-taught. In 2011 I was an intern at architonic.com. At this time I wanted to become a programmer, but then I was introduced to HTML and CSS, and in January this year I found dribbble - and found my passion for design. I once bought a PHP book, but apart from that I am pretty much self-taught.
5. Do your parents know that you are working as a professional, how they feel about this?
Yeah they know it. I actually often ask them questions regarding payments and all that kind of stuff. My mum & dad both are entrepreneurs and give me a lot of advice. They feel very happy about my “hobby” and support me where they can.
6. What you’ve been working on lately?
I am currently working together with the folks at seatgeek.com on some projects. SeatGeek is a search engine for tickets and is based in New York City.
7. You have a side project named Carri.me, tell me more about it and do you have plans for it?
Carri.me is a quite small project of me. I made it in about three or four days and it is basically an alternative to mailto links. It is also a help for people who do not want to code their own contact form. There are alternatives, but I wanted to create a service that is as simple as possible and works without ads. I didn’t do a lot advertising with it, but I am planning to completely rewrite it (with a lot more features) and to give it a new face!
8. What is the future of web design in your opinion?
That’s a hard question. I think web design will definitely become harder and more complicated, mostly because the hardware is getting better and better. Unfavorable for newcomers!
9. Do you tell your clients about your age? If yes, how do they react?
That always depends. If I am working with a serious company, I usually don’t bring up my age at the beginning. Sometimes I actually have no idea if a client knows that I am 16. If somebody is asking, I always say my age. The reactions are continuously good, often something like “cool” or “nice”. No problems so far, actually my age is an advantage for me if I’m honest.
10. What do you plan doing in future? Are you going to continue freelancing or you want a career in a company?
Absolutely no idea so far. I really want to move to the USA and work in a small startup. Freelancing is not a thing I want to continue in the future, but for now it works great!
