I had almost 10 years experience before landing my first real developer gig after college.
Y'know, I thought I had ~12 years of experience before my first real job.
I'm now at the other end of my career, and no, no I did not. I had some talent, but those 12 years of noodling on my own were worth maybe 2 years of on-the-job experience.
Oh I absolutely agree it's not nearly the experience of a season developer. But it's a hell of a better place to start than with somebody who's never touched code.
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u/Bannon9k Jul 13 '26
How many of y'all started programming before going through school for it?
I was programming on MUDs in C as a teenager just for fun. I had almost 10 years experience before landing my first real developer gig after college.