Has anyone had an actual career (something you could support yourself/family on for the span of your life) before development? Curious as to how people got into development.

An example is I have a colleague who was some sort of construction supervisor and managed to get into development someone.

Assisting nurse/nurse here :) not much of a career, but it payed my bills and I had a "promotion" once :)

I've always been in the industry (I started in operations)
But I've known a few people who were teachers.

@M1sf3t It was a raise from ~700LTL (217USD) to ~1000(310USD) !

@M1sf3t a month :)

I did non development IT work. Servers, networking, support. I think it is a good start for devs, to understand the greater landscape. Speaking of landscape, I supported myself as a landscaper. And as a waiter. And as a machine operator in a machine shop. Kinda makes you appreciate IT, to not have to pick metal shavings out of your hair.

Marketer here, that is by education. After grafuation did a bit of UX. Then when I had no job and "great plans" and "great designs" for apps and sites that I couldn't actually bring into life, I've learned how to code from YouTube, pluralsight and FrontEndMasters.com. Started with WordPress. Now work with JS. Been a front end dev for 2 years now. No regrets. :)