I am a good developer. At least I was. I studied Java when I was in college and did programming. But stuck up with a support profile. But I never gave up on the development side and used to develop on anything whenever I got a chance. This way I easily picked up and understood technologies in a matter of hours.
Day by day, I got frustrated doing things at my regular office work and hit the wall. Finally, I quit and decided to pursue as a dev. I have some ideas in mind to develop and give free services mostly with little money in return.
I think I did the right thing. I just want to ask this in the dev world. Other than coding happily, is it possible to earn decent money for food and shelter?
Any advice for this newbie?
Thanks!
I think you should be able to make more money as a software developer than customer support. And best of all, you are doing what you like. No regrets.
Like all skills, it takes practice to get good. So you are doing the right thing to start doing your own project to show case your skills and get practice.
All the best!
I spent the first ten or so years of my working life not realizing it's ok to just walk away. By the time I was in my mid twenties some jobs just reached the breaking point very quickly. Wasn't for another decade that I came to realize it wasn't me -- it was that some jobs aren't worth the money for the aggravation.
Something I've told many budding developers is that unless you really have a passion for it, you might find more profitable use of your time flipping burgers -- you'll certainly be more sane for it. Given what I've seen some entry level positions being paid, "ding, fries ready" may in fact pay better in some places by the time you figure in 'other' expenses of working in an office!
SOME jobs aren't worth any amount of money -- because of bosses unqualified to choose the technologies doing so, because of know-nothing customers insisting they know more than the trained professional, because of legacy code they refuse to update or get rid of hobbling the development process, or just plain toxic work environments. (physically or emotionally so!)
As Kenny Rogers sang, "You gotta know when to walk away, know when to run."
Your emotional state of doing something you like is often just more important than the money -- and it's why there are a LOT of things right now that no amount of money exists to get me to work with them. (Turdpress, bootcrap, etc). It's often just not worth the hassle.