* Graduated at 25
* Worked editing photos of sports apparel for 3.5 years. Spent most evenings coding what I could and making things that were useful at least in theory (ridesharing web app, etc.)
* Got a terrible job at a content farm in LA (not the one you're thinking of) working in ad trafficking. Took a pay cut to do it. Made a lot of tools with the the Google DART API in Java saving the company hundreds of thousands, which meant they were willing to let me continue on these wacky side projects.
* Got another job as a Technical Account Manager based on my work in HTML/CSS/JS and Java. Product flopped, but the experience was great. Learned Python and Django while I was at it
* Moved to Ireland on a lark on a working holiday visa
* Got a tech support position at a domain registry (not registrar). Stagnated a bit since nothing was going on yet without any domains being released, but practiced while I could, in particular brushing up on network knowledge
* Was recruited by and accepted a position at a PaaS company in Dublin as a support engineer, at roughly triple the salary I was at in LA. I spend most of my days working with iOS, Android, and Unity SDK's. I do a lot of debugging by trawling through logs. Have worked with Mongo quite a bit for this.
I am 31 - but the part where I got the crap job in LA I was 28, so I don't think you're too far off. Also, I'm not a "developer", but I hope I can become one in a few years' time.
Out of curiosity, what kind of money did you start at in your job in Dublin? I've been toying with the idea of moving to the UK/Ireland, and from what I've been able to gather pay seems to be really low there? For reference, I'd consider anything below 2500 euro/month after tax to be "really low" for knowledge work where you're doing something useful.
In case anyone's curious, my degree is a B.A. in Physics. B.A. primarily because I was in a school where switching majors was virtually impossible and I couldn't hack quantum lab.
I also think going to Defcon every year for the last 5 years helped quite a bit too.
* Graduated at 25 * Worked editing photos of sports apparel for 3.5 years. Spent most evenings coding what I could and making things that were useful at least in theory (ridesharing web app, etc.) * Got a terrible job at a content farm in LA (not the one you're thinking of) working in ad trafficking. Took a pay cut to do it. Made a lot of tools with the the Google DART API in Java saving the company hundreds of thousands, which meant they were willing to let me continue on these wacky side projects. * Got another job as a Technical Account Manager based on my work in HTML/CSS/JS and Java. Product flopped, but the experience was great. Learned Python and Django while I was at it * Moved to Ireland on a lark on a working holiday visa * Got a tech support position at a domain registry (not registrar). Stagnated a bit since nothing was going on yet without any domains being released, but practiced while I could, in particular brushing up on network knowledge * Was recruited by and accepted a position at a PaaS company in Dublin as a support engineer, at roughly triple the salary I was at in LA. I spend most of my days working with iOS, Android, and Unity SDK's. I do a lot of debugging by trawling through logs. Have worked with Mongo quite a bit for this.
I am 31 - but the part where I got the crap job in LA I was 28, so I don't think you're too far off. Also, I'm not a "developer", but I hope I can become one in a few years' time.