Lead Developer, business owner, US Army veteran. I build things for the web. My website is a bunch of HTML pages that didn't need a framework. Yours can be too!
I started learning how to code in the early-mid 90's. Nothing fancy, just BASIC and graphing calculators. I got really fascinated with web sites and building things with HTML (JavaScript and CSS came later).
Fast forward a few years and I've gotten 'pretty good' according to back then me. At the time and in the economy that I grew up in, if you told people you wanted to write code as a job, they laughed at you and told you to get a real job (like at the factory, or on a farm, or in a call center). So I bounced from job to job for a while and finally joined the US Army.
Long story short, I ended up in a headquarters building instead of on the field like the other grunts, and they figured out I knew how to code (in addition to my other duties), so I took over customizing some Sharepoint sites (IE: Actual template and code level changes, using libraries to make customize online calendars and things like that). I felt like a super-hacker, but it was cringe-level code when I look back at it. It was the first time I got paid to code and I never looked back :D
After the Army I used the GI Bill to go to school for CS, while working part-to-full-time as a software engineer. The first couple of years in school were amazing for me. Data Structures, Advanced Web, even intro to programming helped me pick up skills that I didn't know I didn't know (I had an Associate's Degree going in, so I mainly took Major classes and started out, I think, as a high-credit Sophomore).
Then we got into Operating Systems and a few other classes, and the further I went the less it had to do with actually implementing code, and more and more into abstract theory about computers, which is valuable and necessary education in order to push our technology further and further, but I was in my early 30's with a family. I had been writing code in one form or another for 20 years, and I wasn't looking to get a Master's degree or a PhD, I just wanted to write good code and have fun doing it!
I dropped out as a Senior, because I got a steady full-time job. I kept saying I was going to find time to go back, but working on a team with a good mix of people pushed me further than my classes ever would have.
Ultimately, I think if someone wants to code, and enjoys it, they end up self-taught and consider college (or college equivalents) as a supplement to fill-in the gaps in their knowledge.
If someone sees coding as an economic choice (It's a high-paying field/solid career choice) they end up learning to code in college. There's no value-judgement in that, I just think it's two roads to the same place.
The fact that self-taught is a viable option in a career like software engineering is an AMAZING thing that will probably only be an option for another twenty or thirty years (If we're lucky), but for my part I'm glad to be a part of it :D
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I'm an odd duck (at least I feel like one :D)
I started learning how to code in the early-mid 90's. Nothing fancy, just BASIC and graphing calculators. I got really fascinated with web sites and building things with HTML (JavaScript and CSS came later).
Fast forward a few years and I've gotten 'pretty good' according to back then me. At the time and in the economy that I grew up in, if you told people you wanted to write code as a job, they laughed at you and told you to get a real job (like at the factory, or on a farm, or in a call center). So I bounced from job to job for a while and finally joined the US Army.
Long story short, I ended up in a headquarters building instead of on the field like the other grunts, and they figured out I knew how to code (in addition to my other duties), so I took over customizing some Sharepoint sites (IE: Actual template and code level changes, using libraries to make customize online calendars and things like that). I felt like a super-hacker, but it was cringe-level code when I look back at it. It was the first time I got paid to code and I never looked back :D
After the Army I used the GI Bill to go to school for CS, while working part-to-full-time as a software engineer. The first couple of years in school were amazing for me. Data Structures, Advanced Web, even intro to programming helped me pick up skills that I didn't know I didn't know (I had an Associate's Degree going in, so I mainly took Major classes and started out, I think, as a high-credit Sophomore).
Then we got into Operating Systems and a few other classes, and the further I went the less it had to do with actually implementing code, and more and more into abstract theory about computers, which is valuable and necessary education in order to push our technology further and further, but I was in my early 30's with a family. I had been writing code in one form or another for 20 years, and I wasn't looking to get a Master's degree or a PhD, I just wanted to write good code and have fun doing it!
I dropped out as a Senior, because I got a steady full-time job. I kept saying I was going to find time to go back, but working on a team with a good mix of people pushed me further than my classes ever would have.
Ultimately, I think if someone wants to code, and enjoys it, they end up self-taught and consider college (or college equivalents) as a supplement to fill-in the gaps in their knowledge.
If someone sees coding as an economic choice (It's a high-paying field/solid career choice) they end up learning to code in college. There's no value-judgement in that, I just think it's two roads to the same place.
The fact that self-taught is a viable option in a career like software engineering is an AMAZING thing that will probably only be an option for another twenty or thirty years (If we're lucky), but for my part I'm glad to be a part of it :D