In a comment on my post about apprentices [1] Don Marti pointed me to a blog post of his from 6 months ago where he mentioned a need for an apprentice [2]. I had read the post in question before but didn’t think about it when writing my previous post.
When I was about 17 I had my first article published in a computer magazine, it was a small magazine for a computer club and the article was merely a long email on the club BBS which someone decided to publish. The option of trying to make a career out of journalism occurred to me then as I had been published once without trying, and the quality of the magazines at the time indicated that anyone who wanted to write technical articles would face little competition. :-#
If someone as skillful as Don had been offering apprenticeships during school holidays when I was at that age I would have been very interested, but at the time there was too much cultural pressure (and too much pain invested) to make quitting school entirely an option.
I encourage other people who have the ability to take on an apprentice to blog about it. Please make sure to mention your approximate location and whether school-holidays work is OK.
Interesting Russell, I happen to have had a similar experience with my first publication in a written form! :-)