Most of us probably had some sort of other jobs before getting into software as a career. I'd love to hear from the community on this matter!
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Since high school...
I tried a lot of things-- I'd really recommend the 'try it before you buy it' approach if you're going to have to invest in your education. That's why I became a CNA, and I realized that my proprioceptive difficulties would make nursing tough, so I saved myself a wasted investment in med school.
Was this how you dipped your toes in before getting more directly involved in software development?
yep! I had a contract with a SaaS and was like, I want to do what their engineers do. I still do dev-rel-y things all the time like content creation and documentation that I learned to do while writing my first technical pieces back then.
Very similar to how I ultimately got into what I do.
damn, inspiring
Here's my work background before this field:
Some of these are various jobs, but I've consolidated and didn't count brief stints.
Basically, I did a lot of manual labor-type jobs and then got into marketing as my initial career before discovering my real interest in software development.
Man, you're amazing!
I fitted a lot windows, I also tried welding (I was really bad at that). It was either professional combat sports or tech for me, glad I chose the latter!
After school;
I switched careers at 47 and I turn 54 in a week. So grateful that I ended up in software development.
What led to the change?
It was badly paid, boring and I was clearly not progressing - I was getting paid less than new starters. To make it worse, I got transferred to another area where none of my prior experience was any use at all.
Meanwhile I bought a Dummies book about Linux on a whim as I had a voucher for money off them and started messing around with Ubuntu in my spare time. That reignited my interest in computers in general and I wound up doing a correspondence course with the intention of changing career. Took four years, but in 2011 I started my first web dev job and never looked back.
Technically I've also been a mobile app dev in the time since then, but since that was Phonegap rather than native app development and I never did it exclusively, I don't really distinguish it as a different job.
Not bad for someone with a chemistry degree. The technical content editor work really helped me figure out that I wanted to make the move to software dev and not just work with content.
I always wanted to work in software, ever since I started programming as a hobby in my teens, but I didn't get a dev job straight out of uni.
I spent a year or so working in a call centre selling wine (inbound, not outbound calls). I'd had other summer jobs here and there, but this was my first actual job.
It was a nice company and for the most part the customers were nice. It did not cure me of my fear of phone calls, but having a script to follow made it a lot easier.
(I don't say this out loud often, but I don't like wine, and I really tried!)
Network and System Administration. Well, development is everywhere, right ? :-)
I was a bartender for 5 years. Studied code and web applications, built the website for the restaurant I worked at, and made a ton of great connections. Talking with people from all walks of life really helped me to have confidence in interviews.
I was quite lucky and managed to get into tech quite early but it wasn't until my late twenties where I became a Dev.
We have multiple warehouse pickers in the thread!