I think it’s one thing to have fun programming as a hobby, another to do it as a job. I learned that gradually over the years going from “it’s fun to build toy

I think it’s one thing to have fun programming as a hobby, another to do it as a job. I learned that gradually over the years going from “it’s fun to build toy games” up to a prod code base is a big leap. And you might enjoy programming, but not want a job as a software engineer. As a software engineer you have to: - often focus on maintenance and refactoring over long stretches of time - develop some knowledge of the domain you’re working in (like biomedicine vs educational apps vs language learning vs ...) - be able to communicate ideas and build partnerships with other programmers, not the least of which yourself in 6 months when you revisit that code base - interact a lot with non programmers to get the job done (UI designers, product managers, etc) - compromise to your orgs development standards (languages, frameworks, etc) - possibly be on call to support your project And the list goes on... I’d say there’s a pretty wide gap from the projects that got me into programming and what I do now as a full time software engineer. But I like all the things above too, as it means I’m building software for a sizable user base that will get real value from it...