Ask HN: How did you become a software engineer?

This is going to be a very valuable post/discussion for me as I am looking to make a career switch into this field. Thanks for starting the discussion!

I had been working in a call center for 4 years and had not had any growth whatsoever. I was broke, lost, and felt trapped at my job. I would look at job postings on dice and monster but didn’t have any of the skills mentioned and thought I would have to go to college to get a decent position. I didn’t have the money to go back to school so I tried something else. I e-mailed 30-40 tech companies, asking if they had any internships to get my foot in the door. Two companies replied back. First company was a desktop support position and the second company was a marketing internship at a coding bootcamp. I took the unpaid internship at the bootcamp. I realized I didn’t enjoy marketing right away but stuck with it cause it was better than a call center and I wanted to learn how to code. I ended up becoming friends with some of the engineering instructors and that’s when I was introduced to programming. They told me what to focus on, study, and build. So when I wasn’t at work or the internship, I was reading and building. After a while, I got my first job and been writing code for almost 8 years now.

I can’t lie, I got into it because of money but I ended up enjoying building web apps and solving problems.

Things that I enjoy now are the people. So many cool, smart, and helpful devs out there. The flexibility is really nice.

There wasn’t one book or website. Honestly, reading documentation or learning a concept and just practicing that one thing until you completely understand it helps me. There’s just so many resources online now so I’m sure there’s something for everyone.

Edit: wanted to answer more of OP’s questions.

Unlike many here, I never had a computer when I was young. I knew what it was, but had no interested in it. I enjoy sports, handcraft more than video games.

Went to college for EE/ME program, found out I hated the program, but too many Math & Science credits to do another degree from scratch. CS degree was a natural fit. Decades later, I'm still in the business.

Got my first job by applying to a bunch of companies at job fair.

I don't love or hate my job, but I do enjoy it and appreciate it. It allows me to make a good living and support my family, etc.. Most of my work are creative, I generally balk against repetitive work (so no reports, or ops work for me).

I'm lucky in a sense that in my career, I usually get interesting work/projects. If I had to deal with what some of my friends and colleagues deal with, I would seriously consider leaving the business.

> How did you first get into programming?

Asked my informatics teacher in middle school on how to get started and he was happy to teach me the basics of C :)

> What is your experience with university?

Got my Bachelor's after a long break. Didn't have to pay for it as in a lot of EU, but honestly don't feel like I learned much and most employers don't seem to care if I have it or not as long as the job gets done.

> How did you get your first paid work?

Got my first projects and employment trough family friends.

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

Programmer. I got into computers because I didn't like dealing with people. But having a job means _a lot_ of dealing with people. Keep burning out every now and then :/

> 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?

My interest for computers in general started with modding and cheating in Diablo 2. I learned about how programs worked and how to change local files in order to get other items and change the game in various ways.

I remember the site mewgood.net (I think it was, which was extremely helpful at the time).

> 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?

Went to uni but never finished to get a degree. It was fun, so in that sense it was worth it but the education itself could have come from a much shorter work education that we have in the country I live in.

I think today going to university is probably still very fun for the students (except covid restrictions) but it's not really worth it education wise. You can get a better and shorter education with less fluff.

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

I got a part time job at the same time as I got accepted at a company to do my Bachelors degree (which I never completed).

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

I work as a developer. I love the freedom that I get. I can work remotely, leave the job earlier or come in later. It is fun and interestin but the thin I hate is that it sometimes can feel like a jail. I am bound to my computer with too little human interaction.

I think part of that is because I work remote and live on the country side. But I have taken action to involve myself in meeting new people on my spare time. Covid was thouh for my mental health tho. Felt very lonely.

Also even if I walk a lot, it feels like sitting still like a shrimp in front of a computer is not very healthy. I have been gettin much more issues with reflux that I don't think I would've had if I had a job where I moved around all the time.