I lost my job in PR in February. Instead of doing the knee getting another job immediately as my family urged me to do -- I am a single father after all -- I realized I'd make more money in the long term by living on the ~$5k I had saved up and free fall until school began again in the fall, at which point I'd have GI Bill + student loan money, and we could live off ramen.
During the free fall period I focused like a laser on programming and decided that that job was the last thing I'd ever do in PR or marketing. Lo and behold the hard work paid off when I got an internship last month. Pay isn't great but it's better than the $0 I was getting paid to hack at home. (Plus I do actual programming, not coffee-fetching and what have you).
What else... it's so many little things. It's made me be truer to principles which had been loosely held previously, i.e. drug legalization (legalize it all, along with prostitution and all that), religion (strict atheist now), politics (libertarian, obviously). Not that becoming a programmer made me more liberal, it's just that it forced me to evaluate some contradictory stances and come down on one side or another. It made me more honest with myself.
This is probably all pretty squishy stuff and not concrete examples you were looking for. But my life is going way way better than it ever has, and I credit the time and energy I've spent educating myself to be a programmer, and the things I've learned along the way, with that improvement.
Thanks for sharing that. I've been thinking on and off about moving programming from a hobby to full-time job and it's nice to see someone who took the plunge.
I'm curious to know if it was difficult to find an internship. Typically, companies are looking for people out of college and I would expect them to dismiss older candidates pretty fast unless you have a strong cover letter.
I dunno about the age thing. I'm middle aged in programming years, and had no issues landing a job at the only Python/Django biz that I know of in central Indiana. I started attending local python & other meetups, and connections flowed naturally from there. That's how I got this. I poured a lot of time and energy into this pursuit, and it paid off.
It has been the purest, most gratifying & deeply rewarding transformation of my life, ahead even of 10 years of service as a Marine. Why? Because every second and calorie I poured into self-education about programming was out of pure passion, not because I was contractually obligated or faced court martial otherwise.
Programming is the most perfect creative outlet for me, and very day im absolutely giddy about going to work and am a little disappointed when it's quitting time. Achievement unlocked. If you want to do it then do it.
