Ep. 69: from successful plumber to full-time developer

On this week's episode of the freeCodeCamp podcast, Abbey chats with self-taught developer Rick West who lives and works in the UK. Rick shares how he went from owning his own successful HVAC business to stumbling upon coding and slowly falling in love with tech. Even though Rick's plumbing business was booming, he told himself that, by the time he was 30, he wanted to start another career. And he ended up doing just that. After meeting a couple developers through various contracts, he became fascinated with coding. When he had a break between jobs, he started teaching himself the basics. Not long thereafter, Rick emailed some tech companies and found one that would take a chance on a very junior, very inexperienced developer - and the rest is history. He has just started a new job - as well as a Software Engineering degree - and he's a self-professed constant learner. When he's not studying or coding, Rick enjoys hanging out with his family and leading a relatively quiet life. In this episode, you'll hear all about how Rick made the big career transition and why. We discuss how his life is different now, what it's like to be enrolled in a degree program while working full time, and how he prioritizes his time - among many other things. Find Rick on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/rick_west8