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Discussion on: We're Stephanie Hurlburt and Rich Geldreich, ask us anything!

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Stephanie Hurlburt

For me, programming began as "I need a job and money." I didn't do it as a hobby, I didn't know the slightest thing about programming until I took college courses with the intent of getting a job.

So I went through college, and then my learning has largely been the intersection of "what I've liked that I've done so far" and "what can I get paid to do." Even into starting a business-- we weren't just going to make any product because we thought it was fun and we assumed it'd sell, we made a project we knew we already had customers for.

I recommend trying to find a mentor if you can (lots of resources here: stephaniehurlburt.com/blog/2016/11... ) and try to learn what you need to get a job, or if you have a job learn what you need to excel. Totally fine to do things just for the joy of it too, but this approach has worked well to give me structure (I tend to love a lot of things :) ).

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Stephanie Hurlburt

Was thinking more on this-- if you feel like your professional development's totally fine and you just want to progress in other ways, maybe another good way to structure it is to set other goals, and aim for those ideally with some guided help. Same basic idea.