What age did you get into Techie stuff?

studentphil

Is it ever too late to get into techie stuff or is it a young person's game?

[Deleted User]

i'm a techie from birth.. born 1980, we had a ZX81 in 1979 then a BBC Micro in 1985. Learnt to program about then.. guess what, i work in IT now.

Just to stir things up a little i decided to do a degree in genetics. Not sure why, i think i liked jurassic park too much and i just saw the human genome as a big computer ready for me to program.

superscaper

ringo_24601 wrote:

i'm a techie from birth.. born 1980, we had a ZX81 in 1979 then a BBC Micro in 1985. Learnt to program about then.. guess what, i work in IT now.

Just to stir things up a little i decided to do a degree in genetics. Not sure why, i think i liked jurassic park too much and i just saw the human genome as a big computer ready for me to program.

Ditto, born in 1980 we had zx81 then spectrum 48k then 128k, then Acorn Archimedes....... I'm now unemployed but completing a PhD in nanoelectronics. I watched too much Star Trek I think.

Fifer

Depends what you mean by Techie stuff. I was into electronics from about the age of 15 (and mechanical stuff much earlier than that). If you mean computing, I didn't lay hands on a computer until I was about 18 (it was a brand shiny new Commodore PET at work). I didn't learn to program (properly) until I was about 24 when I became a test software engineer (using mainly good old Rocky Mountain BASIC).

Horasio

When I met my husband who worked for a computer company back in 1981.

Rex_Mundi

I'm 42 and in the middle of an IT degree with the Open University (Bsc (hons) IT and Computing).

I started it as a hobby and purely for myself (TV is pants and I wanted to make more use of my free time), but I find I'm doing more and more IT work for people as time goes by. You never know, I might even switch career one day (I've always worked in the construction industry).

If you have an active interest in something, I don't believe it's ever too late to do something about it.

annie-c

My dad is 70 and has just completed all the IT courses our local college offers - I am trying to persuade him to try his hand at HE level learning but he feels he is 'too old'. I fear that he would actually wipe the floor with any of the youngsters he shared lectures with. Age is just a number, I think.

[Deleted User]

superscaper wrote:

Ditto, born in 1980 we had zx81 then spectrum 48k then 128k, then Acorn Archimedes....... I'm now unemployed but completing a PhD in nanoelectronics. I watched too much Star Trek I think.

Before my current job in IT i was a computational biology research assistant - Fairly high up on the nerd scale.

I made a hardware interface between my dad's stepping machine and my Amiga 500 when I was 14. Then I wrote a game in AMOS where you played Mr Blobby, being chased by a bear, to use the interface.

Oh the shame. The only nerdy thing I do in my free time now is make the occasional website.

wolfman

Another 80's child (1981). First computer was a Commodore 16 with the tapes that took 50 minutes to load! Really got into things from the age of 16, and eventually went on to do a Computer Science degree. Am now a Java/.Net developer.

bargainboy

Wow some years of experience here, I am 31 and am interested in become an IT whizz any of you out there got any tips. My knowledge is limited but i am willing to put in about 10 hours per week.

Little_John

Playing with computers since 4 ZX80/81 Spectrum 48k and a 128k andI was confused for a while and tuned to consoles but returned to PC's on the 086 yeah pre 286 ect I started upgradeing hardware at about 14/15 with my 486 and it just went from there. I did IT at A level and got a jobin a computer shop for experiance for a few month then started for another company in build and I progressed to phone support and field engineer, moved again to another comapny and progressed again to a more specialised part of IT the travel industry and have been doing it for the last 7 years I think the last 3 I have been self employed. would I do it again? proberlby not the industry was the big thing to do when it was my time and people think it still is we could make a fortune selling hardware back then but now just buy from Dell or HP they are cheaper and more people are confident in buying their hardware than the were a few years ago.

10 hours a week? It turns in to your life not just 10 hours aweek.:rotfl: