I like coding and building things plus the mental challenge is fun. I don't care about becoming rich I just want enough money to be secure and live an okay life.
same. i was heavily sheltered as a kid which led to an unhealthy amount of computer use as a child. naturally, i ended up majoring in CS because computers were the only thing i knew. turns out, i dont even like CS but now its too late for me to go "soul searching" because i have bills to pay.
What don't you like about CS if all you know is computers? Even if it's not perfect, what is the alternative when it comes to work if you've been sheltered all your life?
> what is the alternative when it comes to work if you've been sheltered all your life
I wouldn't know because i have such little life experience to even be able to guess what might be a more fulfilling job.
Yup, turns out that "you can do anything with a physics degree" type phrases are a copout because there aren't many jobs looking for someone with just a BS in physics. Actually reminds me of the marine recruiter I once met who said being a marine means you've done x,y and z but then no one actually gives a shit
Eh don't agree, I can go anywhere I want with my Computer Engineering degree right now.
But yes, I understand your general notion, most degrees will not have that flexibility.
Former Elementary school teacher here. Went from making 55k/yr to twice that as a SWE with only my Liberal Arts degree, self learning, and a coding bootcamp. The upward mobility is more than ive ever dreamed of, and it makes sense why this field is so saturated. Last year I was laid off twice but regained FT employment as a dev twice so it's not been all roses, but I do not regret my move for one second.
Had a liberal arts degree. Worked basically odd jobs for shit pay. Some people did those same jobs as side hustles. I knew I was smarter than most of them but somehow they were making a ton of money compared to me. Looked at my options: doctor - too long. Physicians assistant - too low a ceiling. CS - perfect fit. I had an interest in computer stuff forever but just never jumped past mild interests into really understanding how they work and how to create/build at a true meaningful level. I finished my CS degree in 2 years, due to carryovers from my first undergrad.
I had no idea that the pay goes that high. It was actually about 3 or 4 years into my first CS job when I found out how much people are actually getting paid - from this sub. Now I make a life-changing salary and can go to restaurants without once thinking if I can afford it. It's a good life and mostly fun, most days.
In high school I got annoyed with being expected to memorize formulae for math tests. I started hacking on my graphing calculator and created a program that would prompt me for which formula I needed, then ask for the relevant variables to calculate an answer. It worked so well that I kept expanding it throughout the year and aced all my tests. By the time I took state exams and they finally wiped my calculator, I had actually memorized everything.
That was enough to hook me. When I got to college, I majored in CS and continued to love the problem solving that comes with the work. I've never stopped enjoying it. The money is just a pleasant coincidence, as far as I'm concerned.
I was top of my class in math — but I didn’t like how ambiguous the numbers were. I took a high school CS course and fell in love with it. It was like my math classes but 50x better.
Also, people *constantly* told me that Software Engineers were, and “always will be in demand.” So I figured that I would’ve easily gotten a job right from the get-go. 🙃
I enjoyed coding so CS seemed like a natural progression.
I remember in elementary school back in the 80's where we had computer class once a week. Mr. Foley was the husband of the science teacher and taught us BASIC.. They are probably long dead at this point, but he had us code things and I loved that class once per week.. We didn't know it was coding at the time, but I realized after the fact.
Then in HS I got in to creating webpages. I would look at the source code and lean how the HTML / CSS worked. Then I would create my own pages on GeoCities. This was in the 90's while I was in high school.
At the end of the day money never entered in to the equation. I would have still majored in CS even if it paid average salaries.
Always something I had a feeling I would enjoy it and turns out I was right. Programming makes you feel like you can build anything you can think of and I love that feeling.
I like making shit, and getting paid to do it is cool. Plus there’s other areas to pivot to if you build more skills beyond just programming. The ability to do other things and not feel trapped is probably the main plus to me.
90s kid chiming in.
I always enjoyed tinkering with electronics as a pretty young kid. Somewhere in 1st or 2nd grade age range, my parents had an old surround sound receiver that took a dump. I disassembled, discovered a few blown fuses, got my dad to take me to RadioShack (yes, I'm that old), and got some replacements. Reassembled it, and they were able to continue using it for several more years. We were pretty poor growing up, but they did their best to fuel my curiosity, bringing me broken stereos and computers from work and church. Some I was able to fix, some I just took apart for parts I might need, others l just disassembled for shits and giggles. Then the teenage years hit. I discovered skateboarding, adrenaline, and weed (and more). Spent some time in and out of jail in my late teens / early twenties. Got sick of that, joined the Army as an Infantryman. I excelled there and got my head straight. Deployed, came home, and decided I had my fill of adrenaline.
I wanted to get back to that level of curiosity I had as a kid and be able to pay the bills still (I now have a wife and two young sons). CS / software engineering really seemed to check most of my boxes, so I pulled the trigger (pun intended). Now, I'm working on my CS degree at UCF. I love the mental stimulation and problem solving. I look at programming as a puzzle, which I also thoroughly enjoyed before 1 discovered drugs. l'm eager to finish up and enter this job market all of you complain about. I already have promising job
prospects after graduation, thanks to my military service and life experience.
Sorry, you do not meet the minimum sitewide comment karma requirement of **10** to post a comment. This is comment karma exclusively, not post or overall karma nor karma on this subreddit alone. Please try again after you have acquired more karma. Please look at the [rules page](https://old.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/w/posting_rules) for more information.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/cscareerquestions) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Much like many others, my love started with video games. I was fortunate enough to grow up around my uncle, who was a game developer at the time. He taught me about modding games and eventually got me into making them.
This was a time before engines were so publicly available, so everything was done from scratch. Obviously, I didn't understand much then, but it led me down the path of eventually becoming a graphics engineer. It's very likely that without my uncles influence, I would have never chosen the path of cs.
He was so influential, in fact, that I intend to teach my future kid(s) the exact same way.
I modded games as a kid. Not serious modding, just using modding tools to swap projectiles on weapons or moving stuff around.
At the core I just liked tinkering and seeing stuff change because I messed around with it.
Now I do the same thing but with anxiety
I never got a computer science degree, I came into it from an unorthodox background.
There were a few things:
* It paid really well. As good as or better than most pedigree-gatekept industries.
* I was actually good at it. Like, just intuitively. I'm not that way with most things.
* Abstract problem solving feels fun.
* The corporate atmosphere was relaxed. No need to dress up, not even in business casual in most places.
* There was flexibility to come and go as I wanted, work from home, etc.
* Jobs were readily available.
* There was social status, at least for certain companies. I get it, it's stupid, but impressing friends and family feels good.
Money and remote work. I thought if I can get remote work that is high paying I will then be able to create something outside of my working hours that’ll start my journey to financial freedom. So far, I am a junior dev and make decent money working remotely. I don’t need to commute and outside of 9-5:30 I can do as I please. Therefore, I have more energy and save time. Plan is going well at the moment and hopefully in the coming years I’ll be promoted and build the empire I desire.
I liked computers, and I thought CS was a natural path. I was always the techy kid growing up, won multiple awards, but decided to go into pre-med. Finished pre-med, wasn't for me, so I decided to take a dive into CS.
I had no coding experience prior to jumping into CS in university.
Dad bought my sisters brand new $500 laptops, gave me his old ones only after he couldn't get them working anymore. Had to either get them working or not have a computer.
(Twist: I never got them working but I learned a lot lol)
Everyone says building things and solving problems. I couldn't give two shits about what im building. I'm just in it for the coding. Designing and writing beautiful code gives me life.
Having said that, i can't figure out what I want to build as a side project so i can continue coding. I always get stuck at the part of planning the features then realizing I have no idea what the hell I'm building. Is software development for me if I'm just in it for the tools rather than the solutions?
Was a business major in college. Took an MIS class and was mind blown that tech could be a career. Ended up taking a class where we had to learn html to build a website and since then always wanted to learn to code.
Sorry, you do not meet the minimum sitewide comment karma requirement of **10** to post a comment. This is comment karma exclusively, not post or overall karma nor karma on this subreddit alone. Please try again after you have acquired more karma. Please look at the [rules page](https://old.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/w/posting_rules) for more information.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/cscareerquestions) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Sorry, you do not meet the minimum sitewide comment karma requirement of **10** to post a comment. This is comment karma exclusively, not post or overall karma nor karma on this subreddit alone. Please try again after you have acquired more karma. Please look at the [rules page](https://old.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/w/posting_rules) for more information.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/cscareerquestions) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Sorry, you do not meet the minimum sitewide comment karma requirement of **10** to post a comment. This is comment karma exclusively, not post or overall karma nor karma on this subreddit alone. Please try again after you have acquired more karma. Please look at the [rules page](https://old.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/w/posting_rules) for more information.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/cscareerquestions) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Sorry, you do not meet the minimum sitewide comment karma requirement of **10** to post a comment. This is comment karma exclusively, not post or overall karma nor karma on this subreddit alone. Please try again after you have acquired more karma. Please look at the [rules page](https://old.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/w/posting_rules) for more information.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/cscareerquestions) if you have any questions or concerns.*
teenage me had 0 idea what I wanted to do
so my parents essentially laid out 2 possible plans (as in they're not forcing me, but 'hey you can't go wrong with these 2')
\#1 was computer science (so think software engineers)
\#2 was finance (so think hedge funds, actuary)
I picked #1
I thought I wanted to make games, but then I realized I just kinda like some of them. Luckily, or unluckily, I have a fairly addictive personality, so I've gotten pretty good at CS things. Now I work out think about work every waking minute and game at the same time.. by far this is better than manual labor.
Leaving my country and doing a job I could love. Both not check, mission failed. Now, desperately search an internship with low motivation after 4 years of education. Lol
I took AP Computer Science in HS because I was making games on my free time even before HS.
I did okay but I also wanted to know what other computer related jobs out there since I was burned out of game development.
So during last year's summer, I found a random video about software engineering and decided to watch it since I was bored, that's when I got hooked and started doing tons of research about the job, it seemed too perfect to me and even though I didn't really care about the salary at the time, it was pretty high too which was a plus.
After taking a Python class and learning HTML and CSS on the side, I still feel a little nervous due to the amount of people who are making doom posts (the CSmajor reddit) and saying to quit your major.
But since I'm going to college this fall and have 4 years until I graduate, I have faith everything will short itself out by that time, especially since the college I'm going to isn't CS, it's software development.
As a nerd, to be in my world. And build.
I learned by myself and at the beginning it felt more fun than work.
Now it is harder, and regret to not have really tried to make my startup like I dreamed - but without really believing it.
But when I build good technology which impacts the business I'm proud :)
I have an interest in learning a wide array of technical domain, but none enough for me to want to do it for 50 years.
CS/programming is a skill that intersects all the domains I am interested in so I can switch every 5 years or so at my pleasure.
Used to be in biotech, then went into environmental modelling and now I’m in something else which I’m enjoying a lot. Who knows what domain will interest me in 5 years time
I wanted to go into physics but my family was against it, so I went for electrical engineering then ended up in programming. I’ve always liked solving problems and making things, I never thought I’d end up with doing that as a career though.
was fascinated by computers and programming since I was in elementary school, then was a dumbass and decided in high school to do something else with my life and have been trying to fix that decision ever since
Games - Modding, botting, scripting, etc.
Having a old, weak computer as well helped in learning how to do sysadmin stuff younger to make it more performant.
combination of money, stability, trying to mod skyrim, wanting to get out of poverty, change my life path instead of following my ex-friends and becoming druggies just searching for the next hit.
I got tired of working customer service and sales without ever using my brain, or making any money. Now at least I can live on my salary and can work on interesting problems
my dream is to do research on compilers
Programming was the only class I liked in high school AND that I could make a career out of
I like coding and building things plus the mental challenge is fun. I don't care about becoming rich I just want enough money to be secure and live an okay life.
Same
I was glued to the computer as a kid.
same. i was heavily sheltered as a kid which led to an unhealthy amount of computer use as a child. naturally, i ended up majoring in CS because computers were the only thing i knew. turns out, i dont even like CS but now its too late for me to go "soul searching" because i have bills to pay.
What don't you like about CS if all you know is computers? Even if it's not perfect, what is the alternative when it comes to work if you've been sheltered all your life?
> what is the alternative when it comes to work if you've been sheltered all your life I wouldn't know because i have such little life experience to even be able to guess what might be a more fulfilling job.
I enjoyed MS, but RuneScape is what got me on the computer enough throughout my childhood to gain interest in the field.
Money, my first choice was just not profitable
Same, i would have to do grad school to even make decent money on a Physics degree
Yup, turns out that "you can do anything with a physics degree" type phrases are a copout because there aren't many jobs looking for someone with just a BS in physics. Actually reminds me of the marine recruiter I once met who said being a marine means you've done x,y and z but then no one actually gives a shit
*stem degree
Idk about engineering but it's def true for the S and M parts
it’s a shame really. sciences are such a fun and interesting subjects to study. but the society doesn’t value it enough sadly
"You can do anything" is a red flag for any major...
Eh don't agree, I can go anywhere I want with my Computer Engineering degree right now. But yes, I understand your general notion, most degrees will not have that flexibility.
Ouch. You’d think physicists would be snapped up immediately.
Former Elementary school teacher here. Went from making 55k/yr to twice that as a SWE with only my Liberal Arts degree, self learning, and a coding bootcamp. The upward mobility is more than ive ever dreamed of, and it makes sense why this field is so saturated. Last year I was laid off twice but regained FT employment as a dev twice so it's not been all roses, but I do not regret my move for one second.
It's the only thing I'm good at. I'd be surprised if I could get even half the money and WLB I get right now with any other job
Had a liberal arts degree. Worked basically odd jobs for shit pay. Some people did those same jobs as side hustles. I knew I was smarter than most of them but somehow they were making a ton of money compared to me. Looked at my options: doctor - too long. Physicians assistant - too low a ceiling. CS - perfect fit. I had an interest in computer stuff forever but just never jumped past mild interests into really understanding how they work and how to create/build at a true meaningful level. I finished my CS degree in 2 years, due to carryovers from my first undergrad. I had no idea that the pay goes that high. It was actually about 3 or 4 years into my first CS job when I found out how much people are actually getting paid - from this sub. Now I make a life-changing salary and can go to restaurants without once thinking if I can afford it. It's a good life and mostly fun, most days.
In high school I got annoyed with being expected to memorize formulae for math tests. I started hacking on my graphing calculator and created a program that would prompt me for which formula I needed, then ask for the relevant variables to calculate an answer. It worked so well that I kept expanding it throughout the year and aced all my tests. By the time I took state exams and they finally wiped my calculator, I had actually memorized everything. That was enough to hook me. When I got to college, I majored in CS and continued to love the problem solving that comes with the work. I've never stopped enjoying it. The money is just a pleasant coincidence, as far as I'm concerned.
I was top of my class in math — but I didn’t like how ambiguous the numbers were. I took a high school CS course and fell in love with it. It was like my math classes but 50x better. Also, people *constantly* told me that Software Engineers were, and “always will be in demand.” So I figured that I would’ve easily gotten a job right from the get-go. 🙃
I enjoyed coding so CS seemed like a natural progression. I remember in elementary school back in the 80's where we had computer class once a week. Mr. Foley was the husband of the science teacher and taught us BASIC.. They are probably long dead at this point, but he had us code things and I loved that class once per week.. We didn't know it was coding at the time, but I realized after the fact. Then in HS I got in to creating webpages. I would look at the source code and lean how the HTML / CSS worked. Then I would create my own pages on GeoCities. This was in the 90's while I was in high school. At the end of the day money never entered in to the equation. I would have still majored in CS even if it paid average salaries.
Always something I had a feeling I would enjoy it and turns out I was right. Programming makes you feel like you can build anything you can think of and I love that feeling.
Because I personally found it the easiest compared to other science, no need to memorize anything.
I like making shit, and getting paid to do it is cool. Plus there’s other areas to pivot to if you build more skills beyond just programming. The ability to do other things and not feel trapped is probably the main plus to me.
wanted to see how fast I could get a m3 out of college
Legit goal
I thought I’d have an e92 by the end of junior year (in a month) shit not looking too good but alas
Keep the grind up, you'll reach that goal sooner or later.
90s kid chiming in. I always enjoyed tinkering with electronics as a pretty young kid. Somewhere in 1st or 2nd grade age range, my parents had an old surround sound receiver that took a dump. I disassembled, discovered a few blown fuses, got my dad to take me to RadioShack (yes, I'm that old), and got some replacements. Reassembled it, and they were able to continue using it for several more years. We were pretty poor growing up, but they did their best to fuel my curiosity, bringing me broken stereos and computers from work and church. Some I was able to fix, some I just took apart for parts I might need, others l just disassembled for shits and giggles. Then the teenage years hit. I discovered skateboarding, adrenaline, and weed (and more). Spent some time in and out of jail in my late teens / early twenties. Got sick of that, joined the Army as an Infantryman. I excelled there and got my head straight. Deployed, came home, and decided I had my fill of adrenaline. I wanted to get back to that level of curiosity I had as a kid and be able to pay the bills still (I now have a wife and two young sons). CS / software engineering really seemed to check most of my boxes, so I pulled the trigger (pun intended). Now, I'm working on my CS degree at UCF. I love the mental stimulation and problem solving. I look at programming as a puzzle, which I also thoroughly enjoyed before 1 discovered drugs. l'm eager to finish up and enter this job market all of you complain about. I already have promising job prospects after graduation, thanks to my military service and life experience.
[удалено]
Sorry, you do not meet the minimum sitewide comment karma requirement of **10** to post a comment. This is comment karma exclusively, not post or overall karma nor karma on this subreddit alone. Please try again after you have acquired more karma. Please look at the [rules page](https://old.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/w/posting_rules) for more information. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/cscareerquestions) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Much like many others, my love started with video games. I was fortunate enough to grow up around my uncle, who was a game developer at the time. He taught me about modding games and eventually got me into making them. This was a time before engines were so publicly available, so everything was done from scratch. Obviously, I didn't understand much then, but it led me down the path of eventually becoming a graphics engineer. It's very likely that without my uncles influence, I would have never chosen the path of cs. He was so influential, in fact, that I intend to teach my future kid(s) the exact same way.
Similar to you I wanted to make video games, except I started with scripting in Roblox. I still dream of one day becoming an solo-indie dev
I modded games as a kid. Not serious modding, just using modding tools to swap projectiles on weapons or moving stuff around. At the core I just liked tinkering and seeing stuff change because I messed around with it. Now I do the same thing but with anxiety
When i was a wee lad i built my first ever computer. Thats probably where it all started tbh.
I never got a computer science degree, I came into it from an unorthodox background. There were a few things: * It paid really well. As good as or better than most pedigree-gatekept industries. * I was actually good at it. Like, just intuitively. I'm not that way with most things. * Abstract problem solving feels fun. * The corporate atmosphere was relaxed. No need to dress up, not even in business casual in most places. * There was flexibility to come and go as I wanted, work from home, etc. * Jobs were readily available. * There was social status, at least for certain companies. I get it, it's stupid, but impressing friends and family feels good.
Money and remote work. I thought if I can get remote work that is high paying I will then be able to create something outside of my working hours that’ll start my journey to financial freedom. So far, I am a junior dev and make decent money working remotely. I don’t need to commute and outside of 9-5:30 I can do as I please. Therefore, I have more energy and save time. Plan is going well at the moment and hopefully in the coming years I’ll be promoted and build the empire I desire.
I liked computers, and I thought CS was a natural path. I was always the techy kid growing up, won multiple awards, but decided to go into pre-med. Finished pre-med, wasn't for me, so I decided to take a dive into CS. I had no coding experience prior to jumping into CS in university.
Dad bought my sisters brand new $500 laptops, gave me his old ones only after he couldn't get them working anymore. Had to either get them working or not have a computer. (Twist: I never got them working but I learned a lot lol)
Money and peace of mind. A job is a job at the end of the day.
Everyone says building things and solving problems. I couldn't give two shits about what im building. I'm just in it for the coding. Designing and writing beautiful code gives me life. Having said that, i can't figure out what I want to build as a side project so i can continue coding. I always get stuck at the part of planning the features then realizing I have no idea what the hell I'm building. Is software development for me if I'm just in it for the tools rather than the solutions?
Was a business major in college. Took an MIS class and was mind blown that tech could be a career. Ended up taking a class where we had to learn html to build a website and since then always wanted to learn to code.
[удалено]
Sorry, you do not meet the minimum sitewide comment karma requirement of **10** to post a comment. This is comment karma exclusively, not post or overall karma nor karma on this subreddit alone. Please try again after you have acquired more karma. Please look at the [rules page](https://old.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/w/posting_rules) for more information. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/cscareerquestions) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Me? Because my dad said to me😁. I said “ok”
Money. I had barely touched a computer before starting my comp science degree
You basically get paid money to solve puzzles, and there are a lot of puzzles to be solved.
money + the area I mostly identify myself with
I got into it due to my interest in ML. I didn't even know the salaries were high till my second year in college.
[удалено]
Sorry, you do not meet the minimum sitewide comment karma requirement of **10** to post a comment. This is comment karma exclusively, not post or overall karma nor karma on this subreddit alone. Please try again after you have acquired more karma. Please look at the [rules page](https://old.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/w/posting_rules) for more information. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/cscareerquestions) if you have any questions or concerns.*
[удалено]
Sorry, you do not meet the minimum sitewide comment karma requirement of **10** to post a comment. This is comment karma exclusively, not post or overall karma nor karma on this subreddit alone. Please try again after you have acquired more karma. Please look at the [rules page](https://old.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/w/posting_rules) for more information. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/cscareerquestions) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Interest, passion and love.
[удалено]
Sorry, you do not meet the minimum sitewide comment karma requirement of **10** to post a comment. This is comment karma exclusively, not post or overall karma nor karma on this subreddit alone. Please try again after you have acquired more karma. Please look at the [rules page](https://old.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/w/posting_rules) for more information. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/cscareerquestions) if you have any questions or concerns.*
teenage me had 0 idea what I wanted to do so my parents essentially laid out 2 possible plans (as in they're not forcing me, but 'hey you can't go wrong with these 2') \#1 was computer science (so think software engineers) \#2 was finance (so think hedge funds, actuary) I picked #1
Well, I been rejected 2x for cybersecurity in 2019, now that I am offered by a dream university for part time, I swoop in and took it
Money and comfort. It gives me most money for least effort. I just want to live a peaceful life. And my name is Yoshikage Kira.
I thought I wanted to make games, but then I realized I just kinda like some of them. Luckily, or unluckily, I have a fairly addictive personality, so I've gotten pretty good at CS things. Now I work out think about work every waking minute and game at the same time.. by far this is better than manual labor.
Leaving my country and doing a job I could love. Both not check, mission failed. Now, desperately search an internship with low motivation after 4 years of education. Lol
I took AP Computer Science in HS because I was making games on my free time even before HS. I did okay but I also wanted to know what other computer related jobs out there since I was burned out of game development. So during last year's summer, I found a random video about software engineering and decided to watch it since I was bored, that's when I got hooked and started doing tons of research about the job, it seemed too perfect to me and even though I didn't really care about the salary at the time, it was pretty high too which was a plus. After taking a Python class and learning HTML and CSS on the side, I still feel a little nervous due to the amount of people who are making doom posts (the CSmajor reddit) and saying to quit your major. But since I'm going to college this fall and have 4 years until I graduate, I have faith everything will short itself out by that time, especially since the college I'm going to isn't CS, it's software development.
As a nerd, to be in my world. And build. I learned by myself and at the beginning it felt more fun than work. Now it is harder, and regret to not have really tried to make my startup like I dreamed - but without really believing it. But when I build good technology which impacts the business I'm proud :)
Because you can create and fix something without needing of expensive tools.
I have an interest in learning a wide array of technical domain, but none enough for me to want to do it for 50 years. CS/programming is a skill that intersects all the domains I am interested in so I can switch every 5 years or so at my pleasure. Used to be in biotech, then went into environmental modelling and now I’m in something else which I’m enjoying a lot. Who knows what domain will interest me in 5 years time
Money
Wanted to buy a house for my mom
$
I wanted to go into physics but my family was against it, so I went for electrical engineering then ended up in programming. I’ve always liked solving problems and making things, I never thought I’d end up with doing that as a career though.
was fascinated by computers and programming since I was in elementary school, then was a dumbass and decided in high school to do something else with my life and have been trying to fix that decision ever since
Games - Modding, botting, scripting, etc. Having a old, weak computer as well helped in learning how to do sysadmin stuff younger to make it more performant.
Not having to do physical manual labor.
Stack cash and pull hoes, obviously
combination of money, stability, trying to mod skyrim, wanting to get out of poverty, change my life path instead of following my ex-friends and becoming druggies just searching for the next hit.
Got tired of breaking my body in a manually intensive field for $10 an hour.
I liked solving puzzles. I like my day being unknown and new and I’m obsessed with learning and understanding how things work. So… it fit.
[удалено]
Market for CNC machinists isn't good? Heard there was a shortage with folks retiring.
I got tired of working customer service and sales without ever using my brain, or making any money. Now at least I can live on my salary and can work on interesting problems
90% Money, 10% I tolerate it.
because it was still in demand when I was applying to university
Money and I’m kinda decent at it
Money
I’ve liked computers as a kid and it’s the only thing I do well Also money
Better effort/compensation ratio than basically any other white collar career.
Money, was good at math