This is maybe the only place in my life where some people are as left or lefter than me, so I'm curious on perspectives. I've been studying on my own with plans to pursue a competency-based degree online -- if I prove to myself that I care enough to stick with it.
Given that by now I've become acquainted enough with two jobs to become jaded, I'm wondering how CS is (initial puzzle-solving thrill versus six years later). The tech industry can be rife with chud shit, and I doubt someone with little experience could jump straight into freelancing or working in a more solo capacity. But it's an industry I'm wholly unfamiliar with.
My career experience (ignore these two walls of text if you don't want any exposition):
Journalism: Don't regret it, but solely because it taught me the valuable lesson that I won't always know what I'll actually want in life. Started as a super-lib and left a washed-out sucker. The average reporters I met were nauseatingly status-quo -- either true-and-through bootlickers or too naive to realize themselves as free PR agents for people in power. There's something about years of condensing complicated situations to a few grafs for laymen which rots your brain into an endless chasm of cheap metaphors, impotent virtue-signaling rage, and other cliche nonsense. Met a few good ones who felt trapped like I did, but my experiences with the industry and the average journalist I met were eyerolling. I've worked manual labor jobs where older men literally screamed insults at me, and they never treated me worse (in the ways that truly mattered) than journalists did. When you have no true allies, you don't feel good, and you're not making the world any better, it's time to leave. Seriously, fuck journalism in the USA.
Education: There's a certain comfort with privatization among many teachers I meet that bothers me, but the bedrock idealism of "My actions and words impact how a child thinks" is at least something capitalism can't ruin completely. There's also a fellow commiseration to the extent that many teachers know it's a flawed institution, but we're mostly in it together. Unlike journalism you at least find less eager bootlicking. I've considered getting my Masters and progressing since currently I'm just ESL-certified, which isn't much, but I could still see myself teaching in some capacity as a lifelong career since I've had my fair share of bad days over three years and I'm still motivated enough.
I'm a senior engineer at a small division of a very large company in Silicon Valley. I went to a very good school, but pretty much anyone probably would have been able to get my job. My first boss went to Michigan and my other co-worker went to Wazzu. I think when you're first starting out it helps to look at random smaller companies in established industries rather than just trying to get lucky at a start-up or applying to one of he big ones. Much more likely to have normal people.
As others have said, it's very much a job. The number of times you'll be solving "interesting problems" is low. But sometimes you do just get to zone out and bang out some not fancy but good code.
If you're going to learn anything, I'd learn full-stack web development. Probably the least interesting thing you can do, but the most broadly applicable skillset. I've essentially pigeonholed myself at this point which greatly limits where I can go next.
I honestly haven't run into a bunch of chuds in the office. The worst are probably a couple of weird libertarians. In my experience all my coworkers, American or otherwise, are libs. Lunchroom chat mostly sticks to talking about how much of a dumbass Trump is and people get quiet if I start going off too much at the Dems, but they usually don't disagree, they just don't want to care about politics that much.