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Right out of college (Biology major, chemistry minor) I worked in a Clinical DNA diagnostics laboratory (hospital genetic testing lab). Really liked it. Saw a book that came with Microsoft office on the shelf one day "How to program with MS Excel" or some such name.
Hmmm, this could be useful as we used excel to hold data during various parts of sample processing, to feed to liquid handling robots to tell them what to do, calculate and graph data for genetic results that required any calculations, etc. Since genetics moved so fast and there was so much need that the hospital's IT department could NEVER (still can't) keep up with even 1/10 of the work just our lab had a need for, the boss man said yeah, see what you can do.
Soon I, as a lab technologist, was spending all my time building new and maintaining/enhancing "software" (vba based programs that ran within excel workbooks of course). I decided I ought to get a formal computer science degree, and did so while still working in the lab full time.
I moved eventually to the IT department and still work primarily for that same genetics lab, 27 years after I first started work there.
So the "what drove you to do so" was the interest/enjoyment of programming, making highly useful applications that were in need (creating something useful), and better salary.
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I'm kind of on the other side. Been developing for 30+ years. Still like the problem-solving bits of it, and it's fun to be shown and learn new technologies, but I no longer need the money and definitely not the stress which comes along with it.
Been thinking (not too seriously at this point) about if there is a more low-stress occupation where I could still get health benefits (lol USA) that I might enjoy for something new.
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Yes I am changing from a software developer to a computer security professional. I am also looking into device repair, let's see those overseas devs try to offer that kind of service 
"Dreams really do come true."
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Ha ! as an overseas developer I say: leave that guy to his own devices 
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Well played Rick... well played
"Dreams really do come true."
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My education and training was in nuclear operations engineering through U. S. Naval Nuclear Power School. When I left the Navy, jobs in the nuclear industry were few and far between. So while in college, I took a job at Florida Atlantic University's Central Energy Plant. The director of the facility believed that I, as a Navy Nuc, could shift into IT and learn what I needed to code and implement a new, computer-based, campus-wide, energy management and monitoring system.
I fell in love with software development, learning on my own using the same techniques I used in Naval Nuclear Power School for rapid learning. I learned the vendor-specific language, FORTRAN-IV, and I already knew the electrical and mechanical engineering aspects of such a system.
I have stayed in software development ever since, learning new technology as it appears, picking and choosing what I thought the most useful.
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From my 20th to 34th I was a construction worker. Went to evening school for Analyst/Developer and now almost working 20 years as analyst/developer (Backoffice in house software ->VB6, .Net)
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I'm on more than my second...
- I was in food service for my younger days. The obvious fast food as a teen and then graduated to cook at a diner.
- I was a line worker and then a production manager in a window factory.
- I've had a drywall finishing and remodeling company (construction)
- I drove a semi (helped pay for the remodeling company)
I had some back issues that caused me to close my business as well as stop driving a semi. Since I worked in the factory I'd been tinkering with scripting for a video game and really enjoyed it as a hobby. When my back went out I decided to go to school for programming, which I dropped out of because I got a programing gig.
post script
Back issues are better after I got my body into shape.
Elephant elephant elephant, sunshine sunshine sunshine
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Retired from the military after 20 years of globetrotting. I was like, crap, now I have to get a real job. Don't want to work outside; don't want to work with dumb people; okay, IT it is. Went to school and with a bit of luck got the experience I needed, and boom, here I am, still doing it after 19 years.
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My second career. I'm retired Army (11B4P). Went back to school after I got out and have been coding ever since.
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I was a police officer for 7 years and got a transfer to the IT department.
That was 21 years ago and I still code.
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Me.
I moved - tried a home-business (failed) - and really liked programming and had no place around to work in chemistry (the real stuff). As it turns out, just as in chemistry, I'm not as good as many in the technical aspects of programming but have "amazing" problem-solving abilities. Turns out to be a useful skill.
So - as in my "bio" - I now do for money what I once did for pleasure, like a . . .
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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I got a degree in Physics, and almost all the jobs offered involved weapons research, which I object to, and security clearances, which meant that anything I discovered would be a secret and useless for bettering humanity. So I quit graduate school to accept a job with IBM.
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Do naughty HDD's get sent to Boot Camp?
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640
Never throw anything away, Griff
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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That's a RLL-y good question. I seek time to come up with an answer. Meanwhile, if you'll join me, we can PATA minds together as two heads are platter than one.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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They only get POSTed there!
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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Only if they can't find a way to spin it.
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Do naughty software engineers get deprogrammed?
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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Should the Lounge be degraussed?
Edit... Maybe it has been already.
modified 28-Nov-18 13:10pm.
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DeGraussed? Done that. Been there.
Is is it distasteful if they are degrossed instead?
"If we don't change direction, we'll end up where we're going"
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Oi Griffenstein. Methinx you are trying to hide a Strangelove for naghty SSDs. 
"If we don't change direction, we'll end up where we're going"
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He has to maintain SSD parity!
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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If you try and fail to deploy a project from tfs, and persist in failing, tfs turns off your keyboard. A reboot is required to get the keyboard to function again.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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Did you bang your head on the keyboard? Maybe it's just mechanical failure.
modified 20-Oct-19 21:02pm.
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Sweet! I was looking for a feature like that.
Is this a new patch from MS or did you code up the extension to do this?
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