I finished my BA (teaching). Went on to a different city to get an MA. Due to costs, I felt like I had to find a part-time job. Applied to a fortune 500 tech co

I finished my BA (teaching). Went on to a different city to get an MA. Due to costs, I felt like I had to find a part-time job. Applied to a fortune 500 tech company to be a receptionist. Had pretty much 0 programming knowledge at the time. I quickly realized being surrounded by amazingly smart people with passion for programming is way more beneficial than my masters. I stopped my masters, and started on a never-ending quest of computer science self education. Every day, 1-2 hours after work, every weekend, 3-6 hours, I spend time on Coursera, EdX, math texbooks... Learning compilers, networking, iOS apps, JS, Java... whatever you give me, I'll learn. 7 years later, I have an "architect" in my title, my salary rose more than 3x. Still probably underpaid, but the pace of learning and opportunities I get far outweigh the salary (e.g. got certifications and trainings worth hundreds of thousands of dollars at this point). I am also finishing a CS undergrad for fun in the evenings, but my resolve on that is waning. I can do the same for free on my own, minus the degree. I do like the math classes, which are far more rigorous than I'd be on my own. Other than that, it's been kind of meh.