In fairness I heard/read similar stories when younger, although I suspect now that the industry is becoming more structured (with training courses etc) it's going to become higher risk for less reward than just going to uni and studying security. It also depends on what kind of hack it is (DDOS isn't going to get you anywhere) and who the people you hacked were (could end up being blackballed because you targeted someone with clout in the industry)
A better approach would probably be to point them to the Pwn2Own contests, where there have been some fairly young winners who made good money doing the kind of hacks which could get you picked up by an agency later on in a high profile and positive way (having a Pwn2Own winner on the books would probably be good PR for a company), while at the same time removing the risk of jail time
Biting the hand that feeds IT
