[eappleby]

My high school had a comp sci class (this was 1997, so only the 2nd year they offered the class). My father did some programming when he was younger and suggested that I take it. The class taught Turbo Pascal, which can be a little difficult for some people, so even though it started with over 90 people, there was only 18 of us left in the end. All of us passed the more advanced AP test and I think 15 of us got 5s. Credit goes to the teacher (Mr. McCollum at Calabasas High School), since I think lot of us went into programming as a career with a really high level of confidence. I did IT when I was in undergrad, which I didn't really care for, but my first full-time job was as a software engineer at an media company. Also, not the best situation since the software team is really just a support group, which can be an after-thought for management. It wasn't until I started my own company, after graduating business school, that I really appreciated the opportunities and freedom that programming offered me. Best time of my life (career-wise) were the first couple years of the business when I people were excited to use something I built and actually paid money for it.