Ask HN: How did you become a software engineer?

The RPG kid and I copied the compiler, though, and went to town.

I later went to college at the state school and studied Physics (out of interest) and Music (out of not wanting to stop playing). I've since stopped playing.

When graduation was near, I didn't do well on standardized tests for Physics graduate schools, and really I don't think my heart was in it. I didn't get accepted to any schools, so I went to the job fair, since my engineer/comp-sci roommates were doing that.

I interviewed with Microsoft and Bloomberg. Microsoft told me no in the last on-campus round. I didn't know that the traveling salesman did not have a polynomial solution (if P != NP ;))

Bloomberg said yes. I think that my over the top nerdiness and perhaps confidence helped. There's one thing I remember, though. They asked me my SAT scores and when I told them, they seemed deeply impressed. This makes me wonder if the rest of the interview was just a show.

Once I had a good paying job at a reputable firm in a big city... I guess that makes me a programmer. Once you're in, you're in.

Now it's ten years later and I'm working at Datadog, doing C++ stuff (Bloomberg is largely a C++ shop, and I have yet to pivot in any significant way). I like my job. I'd be coding for fun anyway, though. I still code for fun. No kids yet.

Thanks for asking. :)

I've thought about volunteering in my local community with kids who are interested in computers. I think finding out about their other hobbies and finding a way to tie in programming with them would be a great way to get them interested and stay motivated.

My own observation is that, because modern computers are so small and so fast, you have to intentionally zoom in and slow things down to understand them. This requires special tools and special knowledge that takes patience and practice to acquire. For better or worse these actions aren't very granular: you're either using an app, or you're looking at text, and everything in-between has to fit between your ears. Plus, there are many competing "coordinate systems of thought" (language, but also tools, architecture, convention, idioms) so this is where a lot of people fall over.

Comparatively, we had it easy with the Apple IIe. The distance between running and editing was smaller; the mental model was (mostly) unitary - Basic, or in my case, Logo. The runtime model was beautifully simple, and physical, and easy to understand. It's not easy, but I think the best teachers do their best to recreate this simplicity.

> How did you first get into programming? Were any books, blogs, forums, or people particularly helpful for your growth? What is it about coding that got you hooked?

I had always been into electronics, ever since I was a wee bairn. I think my first electronics project was a HeathKit programmable calculator, in the mid-1970s. As my brother noted: "I liked to take things apart." He followed that with "and didn't always put them back together, successfully." BTW: He's also a self-taught engineer, working for a major, major corporation. He did well. Smart cookie.

> What is your experience with university? Did you get a degree, was it worth it, do you think it helped you find work, what did you love/hate about uni?

High school dropout with a GED (that I actually did well at, and graduated before I would have, anyway). It's a long story, but I managed to make a pretty good hash of things, before I was 18.

I started picking up the pieces, and attended a somewhat sketchy certificate mill (since dissolved). Got a student loan, and it was the best investment of my life, so yes, it was worth it. How I picked that particular school, is a story, unto itself (which I won't share). It was a two-year, full-time (M-F, 8-4, no summer off), EET program (generalist electronic technician). I wrote my first software, at that school (if you don't count the HeathKit calculator). It was Machine Code, on an STD-Bus-based MC6800 CPU card. Pretty "raw," but you really learned how things worked.

I enjoyed the characters I attended school with. Many were Vietnam vets, attending on the GI Bill (the "sketchiness" of the school was because a lot of these outfits popped up, in the late '70s, and early '80s, to milk the GI Bill, but this one actually taught you proper). They were a rough lot, but taught me a great deal about working through life's problems (and I had a lot, back then). This was downtown Baltimore, in 1981-3. A significant number of my schoolmates were black. We also had a couple of State cops, attending (also Vietnam vets, but their tuition was paid by the State).

Interesting environment. I enjoyed the classmates, as much as I did the class.

During my career, I have attended over 30 seminars and bootcamps. Did a bunch of Apple DU classes (dating myself -no one else will). I took calculus, at college, then promptly forgot it all, as I never used it. I was just told that "I needed to know it."

> How did you get your first paid work (family & friends, internship, freelance, full-time)?

The school had deals with local companies, for interviewing candidates as electronic techs. I interviewed at a local defense contractor that did microwave and RF work for various defense orgs (not just the US. They also did NATO and Israel).

I started as a bench tech, but had a habit of hauling over all the HPIB test equipment, and automating my analysis. This caught the attention of the Test Engineering team, and I was fairly rapidly promoted to a Test Engineer. In another post[0], I discuss the genesis of my very first project.

The rest is history.

> What do you do now and what do you love/hate about your job?

Thanks to the ageism in tech, I was forced into early retirement, and I write software pro bono for nonprofits. They seem happy with the work I do.

I love my job. I work very long hours at a standing desk, at home. Working is my favorite pastime. Since no one is interested in paying me for it, I do it for free.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28454887

Wow, ritzy! We always pirated it :) Many, many hours spent in that copy of VS6, definitely a major influence on me growing up.