Ask HN: Late-bloomer engineers, when and how did you discover programming?

Eventually, my parents convinced me that I should go back to college. Which I did at age 24, as a 1st year computer science student.

I graduated with a CS degree from a university almost no one has heard of.

Today, I'm an Engineering Director at Google and I love my job and the people I work with.

You don't need to start programming when you're 9. But there's no substitute for putting in the hours. Or learning the material. Maybe you should switch majors?

I have been doing it full time ever since. Most of my code and learning come from open source projects opposed to my full time work in the corporate world.

As somebody who is self-taught and has maintained two jobs in unrelated careers/industries I have 0 sympathy and 0 patience for developers who do this work full-time yet still cannot figure it out without some framework to do their jobs for them. The general incompetence, immaturity, and accompanying excuses that seem to plague front-end development is really the worst part of the work.

Transferred to a nearby university and continued music education for a year. Competition was less fierce but the hours required to stay in the school were still intense. Much more than a CS degree required.

I had my first son during my second year of university. Dropped out. Got a job at a regional gas retailer that's known for paying their people exceptionally well. Moved into doing maintenance. Did maintenance for 5+ years at said gas station. It was great! Pay was good, troubleshooting skills got much better, and I liked most of my job. I ended up meeting my SO there also! Downsides were 50+ hours/week, work weekends, on-call, work holidays, can't choose schedule, work overnights, etc.

Had a breaking point with my boss at gas station. He screamed at me over something small without letting me explain. I couldn't go get another job in the same industry that payed nearly as well. I had bronze handcuffs basically (not as good as golden handcuffs). I had been tinkering with diy project at home and ended up buying a raspberry pi and learning some python. LOVED it.

I started going to university again at 24 for computer science. I worked full time doing maintenance and did 8-12 hours of school per semester in computer science. I felt super behind too.

I joined a programming club that changed my life. Met a ton of great people who set the bar for programming higher than I thought. Won a few hackathons, got hiring letters at a few internships (which I ended up not taking due to needing to maintain my insurance for my son and needing a full-time income).

I went to a ton of local meetups and met one of the partners of the consulting firm I currently work at. He did a mock interview at a meetup with me. We connected on linkedin and he hired me a few months later.

I've been at my current job almost 2 years now. It's been fantastic. I still love programming as much ever. Love the people I work with, and love working in tech.

Background: I'm a researcher in constraint programming and sometimes user of it in work-related projects.