My first paid programming gigs were on video games as a freelance Unity developer, but my "real career" was founded on embedded Android Embedded systems were a

My first paid programming gigs were on video games as a freelance Unity developer, but my "real career" was founded on embedded Android Embedded systems were a good match for my background tinkering with assembly for calculators and messing with MCUs, but it's a very "traditional" part of tech. Android in embedded is much closer to mobile in terms of culture, so my lack of a degree wasn't a problem getting started, and demand has only grown over the years. I currently work in HMI for self-driving vehicles these days but I've worked on everything from in-store interactive displays to prototype fitness equipment Bonus: You can also pivot to traditional mobile dev, which I've done for some stints over the course of my career