Originally self-taught, I started early working on various programming tasks for different companies. Learned quite a bit about CAD applications from the inside working on ARRIS in Denver. Neck deep in 3D eye candy as well as some interesting bit twiddling in bytecode files. That was high school..
It gets fun from there.. ;-)
Have been all over the map (literally and figuratively) professionally. Spent a few years working for a couple different database companies, handling all kinds of assignments, many of them pleasant. Burned out on never really knowing what time zone I'm going to be in tomorrow, so gave up my battered carry-on luggage for a daily bus ride to an office.
Found out that the skillset I had honed in consulting - being able to drop into just about anything, get my bearings quickly and set to work in very little time - served me equally well in the usually slower and more laid back office environment.
While in the early 90's I was a bit of a Microsoft fanboy, I grew disillusioned by the reams of useless crap they were forcefeeding everyone that stood still long enough. Rarely were promises lived up to, never was the product anywhere near the hype. My first Slack install was an eye-opener. It was a royal bitch, for starters. ;-) Lots of learning, lots of fun to be had. The best part was that when I had my system up and running, I was back in the familiar UNIX environment that I'd cut my teeth on some years earlier.
It was all over at that point. For some years have run a house full of computers - none of them with anything Microsoft on it. It's not a moral thing or anything idiotic - it is purely a practical matter. I am a big fan of using what works, and for me a Linux environment is simply what works.
Then again, having a penchant for trying to boot a kernel on anything with an even remotely capable CPU doesn't hurt any.. ;-) Have run Linux on a dozen or so different CPUs, many of them for the 'because it's there' factor more than anything else.
This little hobby has led to some reasonably insane career opportunities. My years at a company that does access control better - in ways most haven't thought of yet - than anyone in the industry found me going from a developer role to CTO before leaving in 2011. Built a few outstanding products (some as the only dev, others with more of a team) and had quite a bit of fun forging some epic stories and great friendships. Then .. it was time to go.
Wandered back to Seattle and Amazon after that..
If you want the full load of dirt: LinkedIn.com has a reasonable version my resume.