| I first got into programming when wanting to hack websites, around 13/14 years old. Me and my friend found hackthissite.org (which still seems to be running to this day, looking identical to how it was back then) and started doing the different challenges. We both realized we both needed to understand how to create programs in order to figure out how to destroy them, so we started learning programming. I ended up finding it more fun to create things than the security aspects, so I stopped trying to figure out hacking, and started building websites with PHP instead. In the meantime I was studying bunch of different subjects in high school and gymnasium (I think it's called so in English, in Swedish would be "gymnasiet"), nothing related to IT. Also had bunch of different jobs at the same time. Programming was just a hobby. Fast forward to around 2012, I moved from Sweden to Spain (Barcelona) and started working with call centers for cold calling and also support. It got very boring very quickly, compared to elder care that I did in Sweden, so I started looking around for other opportunities. I started emailing bunch of different startups (companies with less than 10 people) in Barcelona that I was happy to work for free just in order to build a resume and could start out doing internships if needed first. Out of ~20 emails going out, one replied and I interviewed there. The owner of the company agreed to let me start working there, but not for free since it's not legal so I had to be paid at least minimum salary by law. Did that for 1.5 weeks and then the owner wanted to hire me, even though I had zero experience with professional development. After that I started publishing some open source libraries that made other companies look my way in Barcelona as well. But without that first position in the startup that answered, I'd probably wouldn't have gotten into the industry. So thank you Martin! > Some questions I'm interested in are: How did you first get into programming? Curiosity and wanting to break things. Grew up and started wanting to create/contribute things instead. > Were any books, blogs, forums, or people particularly helpful for your growth? What is it about coding that got you hooked? Stack Overflow and IRC were the top resources, particularly IRC as people were less anal, more friendly and you also got to know people, compared to Stack Overflow which is very transactional. > What is your experience with university? Did you get a degree, was it worth it, do you think it helped you find work, what did you love/hate about uni? Generally don't like the structure of having one teacher <> many students and feel it's generally a waste of time. But I could just have had a shitty history with schools in general. I dropped out of school as soon as I could. > How did you get your first paid work (family & friends, internship, freelance, full-time)? Outlined above but short answer: Acknowledge I would work for pennies (or less) and cold-email all startups in the city I lived at the time. Ended up in a full-time position. > What do you do now and what do you love/hate about your job? Nothing! I love it :) |