How (& Why) I became a Software Engineer, with No Education and No Experience

TL;DR - A lot of bad luck and a lot of good luck Timestamps: (0:00) Introduction and purpose of the video (1:42) Early university days and initial career struggles (3:24) Starting as an authorized police officer (7:38) Transitioning to work at the courthouse (11:15) Becoming a sworn police constable (14:13) The impact of a tragic loss on the job (21:44) Reaching a breaking point and seeking a career change (23:33) Getting a lucky break into tech via a military-aligned program (24:46) The intensive 3-month boot camp experience (25:44) Starting the first engineering job (27:54) Surviving company layoffs and becoming a permanent employee (30:57) Embracing AI tools to augment engineering productivity (33:26) Reflections on impostor syndrome and career growth (36:30) Future learning path: AWS architecture certification (44:28) Final thoughts on being gentle and kind