#CareerJourney #UnconventionalPath #FirstJobInIndustry
Hey fellow self-taught folks in the tech world! 🖥️ Who else took a wild, unconventional path to their first job in the industry? I’m talking to you 30 and 40-somethings with some crazy stories to share.
Here’s my weird journey:
– Started out customizing action figures on eBay 🏈
– Tried to make it big with a recording studio business that flopped 🎤
– Ended up sanding guitars at Taylor Guitars before diving into graphic/web design 🎸
But hey, it all led me to my first tech job as an HTML Email Developer! 😅
So, what was YOUR weird path to landing your first industry job? Share your story below and let’s inspire others who might be on a similar unconventional journey. 🚀
As a possible solution, consider networking, building a strong portfolio, and showcasing your unique skills and experiences to stand out in the industry. Good luck on your career journey! 💼🌟
Got my AA in CS, then joined a consulting company and was hired as a dev for my current client. Did it to get experience since I had no internships.
I wouldn’t recommend my path unless you had no other options.
Joined the Army in 2017, ran around in the woods for 4 years. One day after I got to my next unit, I got the opportunity to take an exam to get into a Army cyber developer program. Passed, went to school for a year and a half to learn C and Python. Been working in the role for almost a year now at 34.
For me, I’m a little older than you are OP. I spent years finding people who didn’t want to be found, transporting high-risk fugitives and managing money for an outfit in New York. I was licensed in finance and insurance. I retired in my 30’s and spent about 11 years providing in-home hospice care for my mother. I also spent nearly 5 years being almost dead during the pandemic. I ended up with damage to the brain, heart, liver and lungs and spent about one year teaching my mother to walk again after she emerged from a coma. I also rehabilitated myself.
While being on standby I had a lot of free downtime. I taught myself basic: html, css, javascript, sql/mysql, php, python and coded a basic project that was set to become a business. It’s a children’s ebook reader. After my mother died, I opened an entertainment company and put the ebook company on the shelf for the immediate interim until I can secure cash flow to fund both houses and fight the creditors and pay down probate a attorney to wind down the estate.
I’m still not able to do full stack development, although I got about 90% of the way there in about 4 months. I had two major floods/sewer backups at home, one was a FEMA disaster. She also had a FEMA disaster backup that I took care of. That, in addition to fighting a legal battle with a municipality that I’m litigating against in Federal court.
I accidentally wrote my first AI program in python. It functioned with input and if then statements. If I say this, the machine says that. It simulated a conversation. Therefore, after initially blowing off AI, I ended up spending about $150 per month on AI services and using them for various projects. Images, video, music, text, voice and more.
In fact, I’ve got all those old Spawn comic books over my shoulder. I was pretty partial to Shadowman myself.
That’s my journey.
Guy from manufacturing liked my personality and asked me for my resume month after getting my AS in IT. Ended up in helpdesk and in 4 years kept climbing up and doubling my salary.
After getting out of the Army back in the 90s after the Gulf War, I got a job as a software testing contractor on a team that needed my foreign language abilities. The only computer course I’d taken in community college was “MS Works for Macintosh”! They’ve taught me everything else I needed for my current role as a cloud engineering manager on the job (C# was far easier than Japanese and German!), though I did finish up my Bachelor of Arts degree 😉 Since then, I’ve shipped shelves full of shrinkwrap software, put OSes on every desktop, built early web services targeting consumers, small businesses and enterprises, pioneered new cloud capabilities, and in the process have helped raise hundreds of baby interns and CS grad newhires into fully functioning competent adult programers. I’m prouder of my people than the products, honestly. They last much longer and go on to have more collective impact than any of the wildly successful software projects we continually write\refactor\rewrite\rebrand\replace\forget.