[HN Gopher] Tell HN: From bartending to managing cloud infrastru...
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       Tell HN: From bartending to managing cloud infrastructure. AMA
        
       Someone on HN once recommended I share this story, and I've been
       seeing a lot of "how do I get into tech in my 30s" and "can I
       switch careers" posts, so I figured I'd post.  ----  I'm 37. I
       spent my twenties bouncing all over the place; did a stint in the
       Army Reserves while shooting for liutenant bars that didn't work
       out (failed out of college and I was in ROTC). Did construction,
       real estate, grew weed in Denver for a year (legally), ended up
       bartending for roughly a decade. It was great in my early 20s. Not
       so hot to watch my age group get raises and salary increases.  I
       have my GED and never finished college - left with a record-setting
       1.2 GPA (I have severe ADD and I wasn't properly medicated, there
       were other problems too). Seemed like there was this universe of
       'good jobs' that were simply not in the cards.  So there I am, in
       my early 30s, struggling to make NY rent and watching folks get
       promoted and getting married and buying houses and all that stuff.
       I was lucky enough to have friends that worked in tech, and I've
       always liked computers, and I'm so totally out of options. So, I
       start asking - can this be done? How do I go about it?  Responses
       were encouraging and daunting - "it can be done, but do you know
       what you're getting yourself into?" was the gist of most. I visited
       a friend in Utah, who happened to lead a tech team. He has a pet
       project he doesn't have the time to do, and offers to mentor me if
       I move to Utah and work on it. I credit him with providing the
       support I needed to feel confident that I could do this. Didn't end
       up completing the thing before I had to move on, but I learned
       enough to teach myself.  Spent the next year trying to figure out
       how to keep a roof over my head while teaching myself. I I
       couchsurfed for a while, trying to balance self-teaching with being
       a good guest (I failed at this at times). Got my second break when
       I found a place that I could afford, just moments before a cruise
       ship was reported to be in quarantine with some novel virus or some
       such.  Covid ended up having a huge silver lining for me; now I had
       time to work with no distractions. I joined the recurse center (1)
       and did a batch. I lived, ate, and breathed code. Built until my
       brain hurt.  Right after quarantine ended I got my first job - off
       the HN whoishiring boards (2). And with not a moment to spare - I
       was pushing up against my credit limit in ways that I'm still
       recovering from.  ---  My advice to people that find themselves
       hounded by the money / career hounds and wonder if they can get
       into tech is as follows:  - Making this kind of change is an
       emotional journey first and a technical / intellectual one second.
       It is incredibly taxing to stick to it and many, many times it will
       look hopeless. Get in touch with your fears, insecurities, etc and
       work on those. Face the demons. You are bigger than they are, or
       they wouldn't fit in your head.  - Get hungry. Seek out information
       greedily. Get that google-fu up. Realize that any and all questions
       you have along the way have an answer that can be found, if not on
       the internet then through other programmers, which leads to... -
       Find community. Nobody does this totally alone. You won't be the
       first, and you shouldn't try to. Most of what I know came from
       someone else.  - Eliminate those things in your life that have
       control over you. I had a gaming addiction that I had to kick to do
       this - might be different for you. Oh yeah, I mothballed my
       facebook as well. Wasn't contributing to the goal so out it went.
       Be brutal with yourself, it will pay off.  - If you have any format
       of processing disorder like I do, for god's sake get help.
       Unmedicated I'm totally useless, and being real with myself about
       that was a necessary component to my survival.  - It can be done.
       ---  1 - https://www.recurse.com/  2 -
       https://kennytilton.github.io/whoishiring/  edit: formatting
        
       Author : pksebben
       Score  : 3 points
       Date   : 2023-01-20 22:30 UTC (31 minutes ago)
        
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       (page generated 2023-01-20 23:02 UTC)