Ask HN: Why did you join the tech industry? - Debonnys
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0027
Entered my community college without any ambitions and had a 0.9 GPA my first
semester. My major was undeclared and chose a random assortment of classes,
passing my intro to psych class with a B and failing all other with an F.
Ended up getting arrested for drug possessions charges. After that turned my
GPA (3.92) around graduating from my community college with an AA in Liberal
Arts: Humanities degree.

Transferred to another college pursuing a BA in Philosophy. Out of curiosity
and to challenge myself decided to take Calculus (I was good at math in HS,
but stopped after pre-calc). I did pretty well and enjoyed it. Decided to
pursue some more math classes. Also took an intro to programming class since I
was somewhat curious in this. Realizing I had a growing debt, $0 to my name,
and no real career plans at this point I decided to pursue Math and eventually
become an Actuary.

However after a couple more CS classes it was apparent this is what I wanted
to be doing with my life, and it depressed me to read about what career
advancements in being an actuary actually entailed. Quickly crammed in some
more CS classes and graduated with a BS in Math, BA in CS and a minor in
Philosophy.

My "decision" to join the tech industry was purely happenstance. I do not
believe if it weren't for a series of events happening around those times in a
quick succession I would have ended up here.

Edit: Added some detail regarding my original course selection.

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AnimalMuppet
My dad was a computer programmer. My mom was before I was born.

In high school I took a Fortran class. It was... all right, I guess. Then the
computer science lab got five TRS-80s. I borrowed the Basic manual and read it
one day when I was supposed to be paying attention in calculus class. I
started using them (I wasn't in any of the CS classes, but they were tolerant
of such shenanigans), and it was _magic_. Turns out the difference between one
week of turnaround time and one minute makes a big difference.

Then I didn't do anything much with computers in college. I graduated with a
math and physics degree. I felt really smart, because those are hard majors.
Then I graduated and found out I was unemployable. So, not so smart after all.

At my dad's suggestion, I interviewed for a computer programming job. The boss
said "I don't see a lot of computer classes on your transcript." I said "No,
I've got a math degree. I'm mostly self-taught with respect to computers." I
figured that was the end of my chances there. Turns out she had a masters in
math and was self-taught on computers. I got the job.

The pay's good, the working conditions are a lot better than digging ditches,
and I like the work at least some of the time, so I've stayed.

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partisan
I got a Tandy 56k when I was about 7 years old. I tried following the
programming instructions in the book with limited success, but I do wish I had
an adult who could have helped me along with it. I wanted to make a game like
Excitebike.

In college, depressed and unsuccessful in my chemistry major, Quake found me
and I fell in love with pc gaming and thought, once again, that I might make
games. In junior year, I decided to take Java but though I got an A in the
midterm, I couldn’t even get a program to compile. The next semester I
transferred to a public college and started a computer science major using C++
of all things where I did really well, made lifelong friends and found my love
for programming.

Today, I’ve yet to make a real game, but the journey to trying has taught me
much and I really do enjoy creating applications that make things easier for
my coworkers so the dream of making video games is on the back burner.

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TurboHaskal
Like most of us, I wanted to write my own games, which I did until I reached
professional age.

Now I deeply regret making a profession out of my hobby, for the following
reasons:

\- Projects in general are unrewarding and uninteresting. People claim the
industry is broken due to the hiring process, but I actually find whiteboard
interviewing quite fun and challenging. The question for me is not why the
hiring process does not mimic a real work scenario, but rather why are our
jobs so boring to begin with.

\- The industry is infested by puritan and cult like behaviour. Critical
thinking is the fastest way to being an outcast and having an unsuccessful
career. Plus everyone seems to have realised that you have to be a self-
branding narcissist these days.

\- Lack of true passion and love for programming in the field. Talking about,
I don't know, compilers for example, rewards you with weird stares and
disgusted faces.

\- The pay isn't that great in Europe to begin with.

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non-entity
I took an interest in programming was 11-12. Dont know exactly why it started.
I guess I always had a fascination of figuring out exactly how things worked
and my only hobby at the time was playing games. I was interested in a handful
of things as years went on (sciences when I was younger, debated maybe getting
into EE as a teenager), but software development was what stuck the hardest,
probably because it was so accessible (and became even more so since) and at
the time, it seemed like I was good at it. As I grew older and closer to
adulthood I did some freelancing and decided I didn't need any education and
figured I could just coast on the fact I'd been learning for so long. Ended up
getting an job at ~19 after about a year or so of a different, failed venture
and have been that for a few years.

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otras
Honestly it started as a way to get a better job. I had graduated with a
degree in Physics and French, and after attempting to get a policy-related job
in DC, I ended up working as a tutor for high school students. During the
second year, when I was teaching the same material for the second time, I
found that it wasn't as fulfilling and didn't have the kind of long term
growth I was interested in.

After entering the industry (self-taught my way to getting paid for front-end
work), I've come to greatly enjoy tech and computer science, and since then
I've pursued additional formal education and have had some great personal
growth. While it started as a way to find gainful employment, I'm very glad
that it has blossomed into something much larger than that for me.

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talmr
Joined because it is the lowest barrier entry for probably the most
comfortable 6 figure job you can have in USA.

I was able to spend a couple weeks during my Christmas vacation at a previous
job to learn enough to pass my first SE interview. Four years later I've moved
around 3 times and I'm making enough money to live comfortably in California
and own a Tesla.

Not a huge fan of web development any more, so I've really gotten into
understanding how things like databases and geospatial stuff, and diving into
mobile app development. Also been learning how all the different moving parts
of the tech organization (sales, marketing, engineering, product, support,
etc.) work together.

~~~
throw51319
Yeah if you get 1 year under your belt in a stable sector, you know the ins
and outs of the system you work on... can easily do 40 hours, wfh or even be
remote. Get paid solidly. You are set and you have a life.

I don't even care about it that much but I want to be decent at it so I can
always get a job like this. They are not gonna automate everything overnight.

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staller
I first got into coding at 15 after chatting with the admin of an MMORPG
private server I played on often over IRC on QuakeNet. Eventually I discovered
that there was more than QuakeNet, and a group of moderators from forum
network I followed had an IRC server. There I made a couple of friends and
started learning PHP, getting into building my own websites.

I enjoyed it a lot, and I decided that as I got older I'd start my own company
building apps! It grew from there, getting my first job locally and a couple
of years later joined a startup.

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CM30
I enjoyed building websites and working with computers, and realised that the
tech industry was the most likely place I could make enough money to live on.

Given the other likely choices were academia, media/journalism and game
development, and given the wages and working conditions those fields entail, I
think I probably made the right choice.

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robpal
Finished a PhD in mathematics and wanted to 1) leave academia 2) move back to
my country of origin.

Picking up some programming was pretty straightforward, writing code is half
(or even less) as frustrating as doing abstract research and pays 3x better
here. The choice was easy.

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Sevii
I was actually good at it vs all of my physics classes. When I'm engaged in a
project its fun to do.

Did 2 internships and got a job out of college, still at it 5 years later.

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JoeAltmaier
My older brother bought an Altair 8800 kit. I wrote some code in the 128B (yes
Byte) RAM to do a little game on the low-res tube tv screen. I was hooked. I
was 14.

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chanmad29
Moved from finance asset management to analytics, under the assumption that
working with some coding, is the way ahead. Not sure I agree that much now.

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vb6sp6
1\. Making things with the computer is fun

2\. I didn't have a college degree but wanted to make lots of money

