Once I got accepted for University (LJMU Comp Studies 94-98 2.1), I cast a net for a summer job in my local town and got super lucky to get a local firm who let me do a range of things, including teaching me my second programming language (after Basic), ProIV, and letting me do a bit of it. Fast forward to my placement year and I went back to them and they then sent me on a course to learn another language (having picked up a handful at Uni) PowerBuilder. A year later that got me my first job. After that I then worked for Sybase the makers of PB.

I now work for another small software firm working in PB, C#, Java, JavaScript, SQL and InstallShield doing a wide variety of things with a modicum of success.