I've found that folks around here don't really like it, when I share my backstory. Not quite sure why. The only reason that I'm doing so now, is that I feel it would be inconsistent for me to avoid it. I do enough whining on other posts, so it would be jarring, if I didn't do so here.

> 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