I went from writing my own tricked out Web 2.0 blog, writing my own 6502 NES games, writing myriad utilities and scripts to… remodeling my
home, learning how to operate and maintain a pool, work on vehicles, garden and homestead.
I think in hindsight my hobby isn’t programming, it’s learning and I just enjoyed learning programming and kicked out into a good career.
I’ve interviewed once with Google, didn’t make it so take that grain of salt in my comment:
Every time I’ve met with ex-FAANG types in the last decade (and I’ve got dozens of anecdotes) I felt like I was talking with a Wolf of Wallstreet bro stereotype. Complete lack of humility / big ego.
The big name and big money attracts a certain personality type.
I realize full well this is broad strokes and not all are bad, but there’s a bias in the population pool.