In this video I tell the real story of how I became a software engineer at 32 — with no computer science degree, no bootcamp, and a pretty chaotic career path before tech. I’m filming it while traveling (yep, Portugal/Madeira vibes), but the core is simple: I hit 30, had an existential crisis, and realized I wanted work that was actually fulfilling, technical, and gave me freedom and location independence. I’d done everything from door-to-door sales and call centers to teaching English in South Korea and working recruitment — and I was just done with being bored. I started learning to code from scratch in February 2020, then lockdown hit and I went all-in. I treated it like the singular focus of my life: 4–5 hours a day during the week and 7–8 on weekends. My approach was practical — learn HTML, build something; learn CSS, build something; learn JavaScript, build something — and keep increasing project complexity (auth, APIs, etc.). Around 10 months in, I backed myself and started applying. I took an imperfect first dev job (PHP/WordPress) to get real experience, kept learning React/JavaScript/DSA, and eight months later landed a software engineer role with a big pay rise. The big takeaway: juniors get hired on potential, so soft skills matter — and if I was starting again today, I’d still start with coding.