I'm been into computers since I was in the the first grade, when my Dad bought an Atari 800XL. While I was in middle and high school I did dabble with programming, but didn't do anything serious. I was more interested in systems integration and networking.<p>It wasn't until I went to college that I really learned to program. I know people like to say college isn't required to be a software engineer, but I learned a lot having to sit through all those lectures.
This was largely a process that began by reading the manual to my ZX Spectrum home computer, along with lots and lots of trial, error, and experimentation.<p>Of course it has been 30 years since that happened, but learning BASIC, then later Z80 machine code, definitely put me on the path towards an IT career.