[drelihan]

Big difference is that a surgeon cannot fiddle around with a liver, jam it back in the body, wake the patient up, test how the change works, and address (or revert if really messed up) any unexpected and unwanted behavior.

I agree "Web dev" has a very long learning curve, but there is opportunity to be productive and helpful at many, many different points along that curve.

[DougWebb]

You're right, as software developers we have the advantage of being able to create an offline replica of the software we're working on, which we can experiment with without doing any harm. We've learned, through experience, to do that instead of poking around and testing things on our production website. That's one of the many things we had to learn (and which isn't an acronymed technology), which differentiates "career" software developers from hobbyists.

Like I said in my post, I don't really have advice to give. I don't know any short cuts to get from "I don't know anything but I'm willing to learn" to "I can convince a company to hire me full-time so I have a career". Companies have internships where they hire people who are just starting the learning curve, but that's generally unpaid (or very low-paid) and for very young future developers.

I consider myself very lucky to have taken the career path I've taken. It wasn't planned at all, and I don't know how I would have planned it.