| A friend of mine in the neighborhood started playing around with RPG Maker 2000, and then sat us all down and taught us how to use it. Later, the older kid whose house we'd hang out at, his parents bought him Visual Studio 6 (C++), hoping that his constant time on the computer would make him a programmer (it didn't). The RPG kid and I copied the compiler, though, and went to town. I later went to college at the state school and studied Physics (out of interest) and Music (out of not wanting to stop playing). I've since stopped playing. When graduation was near, I didn't do well on standardized tests for Physics graduate schools, and really I don't think my heart was in it. I didn't get accepted to any schools, so I went to the job fair, since my engineer/comp-sci roommates were doing that. I interviewed with Microsoft and Bloomberg. Microsoft told me no in the last on-campus round. I didn't know that the traveling salesman did not have a polynomial solution (if P != NP ;)) Bloomberg said yes. I think that my over the top nerdiness and perhaps confidence helped. There's one thing I remember, though. They asked me my SAT scores and when I told them, they seemed deeply impressed. This makes me wonder if the rest of the interview was just a show. Once I had a good paying job at a reputable firm in a big city... I guess that makes me a programmer. Once you're in, you're in. Now it's ten years later and I'm working at Datadog, doing C++ stuff (Bloomberg is largely a C++ shop, and I have yet to pivot in any significant way). I like my job. I'd be coding for fun anyway, though. I still code for fun. No kids yet. Thanks for asking. :) |
Wow, ritzy! We always pirated it :) Many, many hours spent in that copy of VS6, definitely a major influence on me growing up.