> -Did you learn to program in school or teach yourself?
Well, I guess a little bit of both.
I wrote my first program in the early 80s. It was a game I copied directly out of a book. It was my first exposure to programming.
I also took a programming course in High School in the early 90s. It was, crap, and my 'self-taughtness' I was too advanced for that class.
Then I went to college and got a Computer Science degree in the mid 90s. This degree taught me a lot about programming that would have been harder to pick up on my own. As I understand it; college curriculum in programming is a crap shoot. Some are good; some are bad. Some are focused on teaching specific languages and some are focused on programming concepts.
I would classify my education as winning the lottery. Because I was taught a lot of the concepts behind programming theory and how to apply them. This has put me in a very good position in my professional career whereas I am often able to pick things new languages / technologies / approaches easily.
I'm not saying that an education is necessary to be able to pick up new things quickly; I'm only saying it helped me.
I feel I meet a lot of programmers who know a language [or framework] while missing some of the other underlying concepts and they struggle when it comes time to learn something new.
> -Did you do unpaid work to establish yourself?
Nope! My first client was in college. I was writing some data processing code for some type of research they were doing. I think I got paid $20 per program; each which took me a few hours to write.
My first programming job was a co-op at a business to business advertising firm. A co-op is like an internship; but mine was a paid internship. I made a lot more on the internship than I did at my job at Waldenbooks.
However, I'll add that a lot of what I've done is writing, both blog writing and book writing and article writing. The blog writing is unpaid. I'm cautious to call the book writing or article writing unpaid; although it paid very very low. These actions help me convince clients I know my stuff and has helped me keep an "independent" career as a small business owner with consistent work for many years.
> -Roughly how long did it take you from day 1 of learning to day 1 of being paid?
Where do you count day of learning? If it was when I Was copying stuff out of a book in the early 80s; then probably around 15 years. If you count when I first started college, then probably about three years.
> -What was your first gig?
My first 'real' job was as the 'tech guy' at a business to business consulting firm. They did a lot of marketing. I did a lot of Lotus Notes work. Some work with Perl; web development stuff (JavaScript/HTML), some iCat (a Now defunct ecommerce technology), and some ColdFusion. This was the same company I co-oped with. They gave me a full time offer before I graduated [and I started the week after I graduated].
A few years later; I left there and 'accidentally' started my own consulting company which I still do today.
Well, I guess a little bit of both. I wrote my first program in the early 80s. It was a game I copied directly out of a book. It was my first exposure to programming. I also took a programming course in High School in the early 90s. It was, crap, and my 'self-taughtness' I was too advanced for that class. Then I went to college and got a Computer Science degree in the mid 90s. This degree taught me a lot about programming that would have been harder to pick up on my own. As I understand it; college curriculum in programming is a crap shoot. Some are good; some are bad. Some are focused on teaching specific languages and some are focused on programming concepts. I would classify my education as winning the lottery. Because I was taught a lot of the concepts behind programming theory and how to apply them. This has put me in a very good position in my professional career whereas I am often able to pick things new languages / technologies / approaches easily.
I'm not saying that an education is necessary to be able to pick up new things quickly; I'm only saying it helped me.
I feel I meet a lot of programmers who know a language [or framework] while missing some of the other underlying concepts and they struggle when it comes time to learn something new.
> -Did you do unpaid work to establish yourself?
Nope! My first client was in college. I was writing some data processing code for some type of research they were doing. I think I got paid $20 per program; each which took me a few hours to write.
My first programming job was a co-op at a business to business advertising firm. A co-op is like an internship; but mine was a paid internship. I made a lot more on the internship than I did at my job at Waldenbooks.
However, I'll add that a lot of what I've done is writing, both blog writing and book writing and article writing. The blog writing is unpaid. I'm cautious to call the book writing or article writing unpaid; although it paid very very low. These actions help me convince clients I know my stuff and has helped me keep an "independent" career as a small business owner with consistent work for many years.
> -Roughly how long did it take you from day 1 of learning to day 1 of being paid?
Where do you count day of learning? If it was when I Was copying stuff out of a book in the early 80s; then probably around 15 years. If you count when I first started college, then probably about three years.
> -What was your first gig?
My first 'real' job was as the 'tech guy' at a business to business consulting firm. They did a lot of marketing. I did a lot of Lotus Notes work. Some work with Perl; web development stuff (JavaScript/HTML), some iCat (a Now defunct ecommerce technology), and some ColdFusion. This was the same company I co-oped with. They gave me a full time offer before I graduated [and I started the week after I graduated].
A few years later; I left there and 'accidentally' started my own consulting company which I still do today.