I've been programming ever since I was a kind in the 80's with the Commodore64. In high school I was all about BASIC and C++. Then in college I got into Java

I've been programming ever since I was a kind in the 80's with the Commodore64. In high school I was all about BASIC and C++. Then in college I got into Java & PHP. While I enjoyed it, I never really thought of programming as a career until after I completed college when the web finally started getting fun (2004'ish). In the fall of '04, having been fired from my job in computer sales (I was horrible), I went for any programming job I could find. I got in with a Voice over IP startup. I made so many mistakes, but learned from every single one of them. Over lunch one day, one of the secretaries randomly told me how much $ she made, which was a few thousand more than me / year. Here I was, with a university degree, and she was still in school at a community college. While I knew I wasn't making much, that really showed how much this company was taking advantage of me. But I knew I was desperate when I came in, so I thanked them, and moved on. Next up was an ad agency, then lead developer at another startup, and now currently working at as an engineer & developer evangelist. It's been a fun ride, and I owe it all to that first programming job.