[notduncansmith]

My son was born less than a week after my 20th birthday. I had been doing odd software contracts to make money, but those weren't consistent. Here's what I did: I picked up 3rd shifts at McDonald's while recruiters floated my resume to a few companies. Yep. I had no college, no professional experience at anything, so I got the one job I could definitely get while I worked on making a better one possible (doing interviews, working on my portfolio, etc). Eventually I landed a full-time software job in a city 2 hours away. We moved down there and the rest is history. I should say that I was also buying baby food with WIC, and my parents provided a critical safety net when I would occasionally run out of money before payday.

Nowadays, I'm gainfully employed at a rate that disqualifies me from public assistance anywhere, and I have gotten all of my software jobs through Angel.co and Hired. I'm not the world's most talented engineer or likable person, but I've managed to work alongside some very talented and likable people. I think most people with an in-demand skill like software engineering can do what I did and make their way to a stable income that they can raise a family on.