Absolutely. I can break it down with some key points that come to mind.
Making the jump:
I had been working in a call center for 4 years and had not had any growth whatsoever. I was broke, lost, and felt trapped at my job. I would look at job posting but didn’t have any of the skills mentioned and thought I would have to go to college to get a decent position. I didn’t have the money to go back to school so I tried something else. I e-mailed 30-40 tech companies, asking if they had any internships to get my foot in the door. Two companies replied back. First company was a desktop support position and the second company was a marketing internship. That second company was a coding bootcamp. I took the unpaid internship at the bootcamp. I realized I didn’t enjoy marketing right away but stuck with it cause it was better than a call center. During my time there, I became friends with some of the engineering instructors and that’s when I was introduced to programming. They told me what to focus on, study, and build. So when I wasn’t at work or the internship, I was reading and building.
Focus:
I had been Deejaying for 18 years and so I always felt that I had to stick with music cause it was a big part of my life. However, I knew it would interfere with my current goal. I couldn’t do both. I’m kind of an all in or hell no type of person, which isn’t always great but that’s what it is. So I packed up my turntables and decided to go all in on programming. This was essential for me.
Holding myself back:
After 4 months of studying, I got hired as a contractor at a small agency. That’s when I realized that I was trapped at the call center job because of myself. It was a powerful realization that opened up my mind from there on. I thought I had to have a certificate or piece of paper to have decent career. I do want to go to school for CS for fun!
Problem solving:
Building software showed me how to problem solve. I didn’t have a framework or direction that I would go to before I started this profession. Being able to break problems into smaller pieces and identify how those pieces relate to each other was game changing. I was a late bloomer with all this but better late than never
Money:
Money changed a lot of things. I would be lying if that wasn’t a big part of all this. My mom, sister, and I would live in homeless shelters and motel rooms, paid by churches growing up. We never went hungry or anything but things still sucked. So when I got my first paycheck as a programmer, I couldn’t even describe the feeling. I didn't have to worry about bills or rent anymore.
This became long but I wanted to give an honest answer as to how it changed my life.