My first real software gig was having a conversation with someone and them asking if I knew anything about making a flash program talk to a ticket printer. I described the approach I would take and they said they would pay me XX an hour if I could get close to my estimated time. So I wrote them a little python service to handle their flash games printing. It took a whole lot more time than I thought mostly because the flash games were written by a contracting group in India. But that started me out.

Mind, it was a completely shit service. I mean every time I think about it I think of more vulnerabilities. Unfortunately the contractor leading things had very little clue. So they were no good for guidance. It wasn't until my next job that I really got some mentoring.