Writer, Agilist, Elder Geek
One of my biggest advantages in my career was the fact that I got a home computer early in life.
That meant I could use job search sites back when they were just evolving, or send faxes over the modem. It meant I could train myself on software and in coding whenever I wanted. it let me build resumes and skills.
Now, years later (fifteen or sixteen to be precise), the home computer is nearly omnipresent, but one fact hasn't changed: the technology in your household can be a career advantage.
I am all for using your hobbies professionally. Indeed, I think the ideal life is one where your hobby and job don't exist – what you'd call "hobbies" and "jobs" are so fused you just have a "life" where the things you like make you money and give you social involvement. To me the holy grail of professional geekdom is like that – a life with no outside (or inside).
A flaw that afflicts some progeeks, and that many don't speak to, is that it's too easy to slide into the idea that just because you're a fannish professional, just because what pays your bills also is the reason you have an extensive action figure collection, that you have to take everything seriously. In short, every "fun" thing has to be calculated to some financial benefit.
I'm here to say that's wrong on two counts.
I began working in video games well over a decade into my career. I was only capable of doing this after I stopped being a programmer and started being a project manager.
That sounds backwards to quite a few people, I'm sure. I went from a young and hip programmer to a manager and THEN went into one of the geeky industries par excellence. Actually, it's a great idea for your career – making the geeky leap later in life, at certain critical points in your career.