People whose speciality is anything other than computer stuff, did you succeed in self teaching?

Question

Have you reached to the point where you can declare yourself a professional programmer?

Answer 1

i am physicist i never been to an IT school. I learned java on my own, certified myself with oracle oca/ocp both. this allowed me to get a job in consulting. i was not so good in the beginning...so i was put on a frontend mission. There i learned javascript, typescript and such. When i started to get bored, i began to learn linux and networking. today i am close to cisco ccna certification and i am working on a sdn mission.

So yes IT sector is such that you can get in without the IT background. To be honnest, not everyone can do it. What you need most is an analytic mind, strong capacity to read hundreds of pages to learn stuff, that is perseverance. if you do this full time, less than 2 years can be enough to get a job in IT.

Answer 2

That's inspiring and impressing. I really have the passion to take that path, I make sure everyday that I move forward in baby steps.
Python, the one I chose to begin with, I love the way it works actually, I learn everyday from 3 resources, a) Python For Everybody specification on coursera.
b) Codeacademy.
c) Brilliantly constructed application like SoloLearn.

Thanks for the answer, Sir.