Why are you doing IT work?

I'm just curious... I find it interesting to hear the various stories. Some people are totally self-taught, others spent years learning stuff in school, other are old enough to remember when universities didn't even have internet access I bet.

Anyway, just post your story here (as brief or detailed as you feel comfortable, of course). I'll start:

I've always been a computer enthusiast since my dad first bought that TI machine (with the cartriges and tapes... heh I loved Hunt the Wampus and Parsec... heh). But my father was deathly afraid of "The Internet" He though that just by connecting, a hacker would be able to put viruses in our computer (by this time, we had, I think, a nice top-of-the-line Compuad 286), steal every scrap of data, including deposit slips from his checkbook and maybe even the cat... Needless to say, we didn't have a modem.

My first REAL experience with the Internet was when I went to college (Washington State University) and encountered Mosaic... I was so inexperienced, I actually thought if I saved a webpage, I could overwrite the person's work online. silly me.

I had already decided I would major in Envrionmental Science (and eventually minored in Economics). However, when I was a sophomore, I took a job with the Student Advising and Learning Center teaching a learning through technology course that required I help the students learn this thing called HTML... I learned it easily, of course, cause it's...well easy.

The rest is history. I learned JavaScript next, then ASP (the SALC was a microsoft shop). I hated teaching, and finally stopped after 3 semesters, but stayed on with SALC working on their online courseware system. My super-senior year (heh heh), I got a job doing basically the same thing with the CS department, except they weren't Microsoft based, so that started me into the Open Source arena which eventually landed me a job for a software company in Poulsbo WA. I hated that job. Really really hated it... The owners had serious problems.. but anyway, I eventually quit and an old office mate from WSU gave me a nice job at his edgy web design company in Atlanta. As pretty much all edgy design company did in the late 1990s, it went under.

Luckily for me, I was able to get job working for a large non-profit organization in Atlanta. So, I've come full circle so to speak and have manages to merge to geeky hobby turned career with my desire to help save-the-world... =]

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I did it because 17 years of Retail managment left me with no life. And after I lost my last job in it, Decided it was time for a change. Took an 8 month course on Network management and here I am! *lol

Web design I taught myself ... as well as most of what I know about Networking (classroom education aside)

I'm 18, got interested in computing when I was 11 when my parents bought me an Amiga 500 for Xmas. I was always more interested in how the games worked than actually playing games so i messed about with really simple stuff to start.

Then I got my first PC at 14 and I bought a magazine that had Delphi 2 on it so started playing with Delphi. 2 years later with Delphi 4 I started getting interested in Web Design and messed about with the likes of Dreamweaver and Fireworks. Then, when I was 17 I built a dynamic webpage in ASP for my boss at work and got paid good money for it. http://www.jjazproject.com

Started getting sick of ASP and Access Databases and Began learning PHP and MySQL around August last year. A few web clients later I'm where I am today. I've just completed 1st year Computer Science (which was a breeze, see above ) and working on my latest website (See sig if u like) aswell as spending tax payers money being a student bum!

I'm interested to know how others got to where they are...

whos_wee_dug?

I'm a painter by trade. I've been teaching myself this stuff on and off for about two years now, started with learning how to navigate through windows then became facinated with the web. I feel I have a decent understanding of HTML, CSS, Javascript, ASP, XML, Flash/Actionscript and getting all of them to work together.

Like I said i'm a painter by trade, one of theese days i'll get good at this stuff, make some really neat stuff and someone will offer me a job (dare to dream )

I'm not doing IT work, per se. I dont see anything involving computers as work, even typing 10 page essays.

Eh, I got into webdesign and development when a friend of mine told me he could make a webpage (about 3 years back) so i had to outdo him. I used the greatest resource i had acess to (google, of course) and learned HTML. Needless to say, my website kicked the crap out of his .

I started to enjoy it, and developed my design skills by making templates in, should i say it? ms paint. Until i got photoshop as a christmas present from my cousin (I will always thank him for that) and I just got interested in php maybe half a year ago, found that i like creating dynamic pages, and writing scripts.

wow, didnt realize i had that much to say about myself ^^......

My dad bought a top-of-the-line IBM 21 years ago when I was four years old. Naturally, I thought it was a cool big-boy toy since my dad was always on it, so I soon became interested in computers. I'd go over to my friend's house from time to time, and his dad also had a new computer, but his dad would give us hell for "pounding on the keys" and didn't like us even being close to his toy.

My dad, on the otherhand, allowed me to mess around on his PC, bought me a typing-tutor program, and taught me a little about DOS. Soon after, I learned how to make batch files (I think I was six by then).

By the time I was 12, I was running two BBS' with a friend. That's like being webmaster now days.

Thanks to my dad's typing tutor software, I was typing 55 words a minute by the age of twelve.

I had few friends in school that I'd really classify as friends. I grew up in Okinawa, Japan and there were maybe two other white kids in my class. Kids can be mean and discrimination runs rampant on Okinawa, so I became somewhat of a loner and spent all my time behind the computer.

Windows came out and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. Then the internet! Then the 486's! Then graphics software! etc...

Basically, I got into IT because I was a loner my whole childhood and found it easier to communicate with computers than with people. There is no other life for me. This is what comes naturally.

I started out with a spendy 50mhz PC, which was my dads. I used to have so much fun coloring stuff on the computer, that when I finally got that computer (he upgraded to a 200) for my 11th B-Day (I think... ) I immediatly began drawing on the computer. I started learning how the hardware and software interacted, and I finally bought my own computer after I fried my 50 trying to do somthing( got no idea what, I was stupid )
I then invested in my first drawing pad, and realized all of the possibilities of what I could do to my images on the computer (I had been free hand drawing ever since I could hold a pen). My dad surprised me one christmas. He had bought a scanner! WOOT! I was so psyched. He hooked it up to his computer, I scanned, I put it on a disk, put the image on my computer and wept.
Later on I invested in an expensive drawing tablet and I got photshop. Been doing stuff in that ever since, but lately Ive been brushing up on some HTML.

Theres my story. Not much, but its ALL mine!

Ever since mum got the internet 3 years ago I couldnt get off the damn thing.

I opened an msn parenting group when Klaudia was born in September 2002 and realised that I was pretty creative with making webpages for the group so I decided to start studying it properly.

Now I'm really keen to open my own business so still studying for the moment and hoping to open my business in the next few months.

I started with computer when I bought my first Apple 2e. Then started to experiment with everything. Realizing that everyone had a pc I transferred to the world of pc’s and built my first one. Finding that I am more interested in Hardware and Working with PC’s. After that every day I have been in front of a computer and have never gave up. Then I got a job as a LAN Administrator at my school managing the servers at the age of 17. Now I do anything related to computers/electronics Web Design, Programming, Hardware, Software Configuration, and Networking. Operating Systems include Windows and Linux/UNIX. Sorry I gave up on Apple. The only Apple device I support and own is the Apple iPod.

Me too!

Actually, I don't own one yet, but I will very soon.

People rarely do =]

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My parents bought an old Windows 95 computer, with an AMD K5 100mhz proc
I was facinated.
my best m8 had a windows 3.1 computer, and I was facinated, he had his before me.
When I got mine no one could get me off it.
This was when I was about 11.
My friend also got the internet, I was like....wow!
so I pursuaded my parents to buy a modem for xmas, and even the internet.
xmas came, I got a brand new computer....wow, modem included
PLayed around, installed games.....the computer lasted 1 month, it was already screwing up, took it back to the shop numerous times.
got a newer computer.
Had this one ages, actually, still got it, well, my parents have.
Then I got cable, and even on the 56k I began making websites about 3 years a go, when I was 13.

Now I have 600k cable, a 3ghz p4 Ran computer, 1gb Ram and all the software packages I need. Got into graphics design about 8 months ago, and now I have a nice little graphics website.

All in all, I have far too much time on my hands lol

Oh good lord.

I guess it was 1978 when I first began messing with the pdp11 at my junior high school. To this day, I can't even begin to imagine what they used it for... but I knew it called to me; beckoned for my attention.

Of course then we moved to what was then an essentially backwards-ass community which, in spite of itself, was extracted from the morass of techno-illiterates into the realm of the 20th century. It was then, circa 1981 I began hacking the town's mainframe via the NCR teletype at school.
By 1982 (or '83?), I had purchased my own Commodore 64... with the 1541 drive! (Much to my father's lament.)

I dialed into every BBS I could find, then began using some phreaker skills to make a longer journey. The 64 actually helped me a lot; I taught myself assembly language programming on it and wrote some, not so bad stuff. I hacked my first external system in 1984 -- how very Orwellian. By 1985 or '86 I had purchased a pre-release of an Atari 520ST and became fascinated by 'C'. Of course, Unix Sys III was still around, but would soon be surpassed by V which looked interesting...not to mention this little offshoot called 4.0 BSD, which would eventually branch to FreeBSD.
After graduating with a BSEE, I went to work for the government.
Skip ahead to ~1998. I leave (that) government work and become a contract Engineer for the Dept. of Defense, Special Operations Command. Talk about flipping to the other side of the coin!
I did everything from Security Engineering/Investigations to Webmaster to Network Engineer. While they typically do not pay to scale, they do offer the opportunity to work with just about every known service/task/piece of hardware known to mankind.
Got fed up in 2001, and landed here at Big Blue. Never looked back, and don't regret it a second. Best company I have ever worked for.

My only question is, does anyone actually read these things?

It's the games that made me so interested ni computer
the first few games like pac man and stuffs.
then later on, golden axe on sega.
then mario.
then delta force.
castle vania.
..
..
..

made me want to be a computer games developer.

but, funny thing is that I got rejected for all the games development jobs that I applied for.

my dream job trashed. and irony of life.

I've read every post so far. The human story is facinating to me, because every has one. Do you every wonder where the hell everyone is going when you're driving down the road? You're not the only one going somewhere, after all, every one of those other hundreds of cars contain people on there way *somewhere*

Why? Who knows!? I love asking though... because everyone has a story, and some people have always wanted to tell theirs, but no one has ever asked. That's sort of sad in a way, because everyone is interesting, from the most nerdy to the brooding monosylabic loner to the, like, high strung cheerleader... I should make a documentary =]

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