Hey,

I just have a few questions I would like to ask. I’m just about to turn 18 and as all do chose my career path. At the moment I’m tossing up between a few things but ever since I got into designing and building websites the more and more I have started to take an interest in programming. I’ve been creating websites for a good 6 months now and am quite handy with HTML and CSS but would really like to get into programming. Anyway moving on the point of my questions is to differentiae as to whether programming is something I want to chase as a career or just a hobby so if you could answer my questions it would be much appreciated.

1) For those who have worked as a full time programmer how hard is it to find permanent work and what is the pay like on average?

2) I have always wanted to create a game, mainly a simulator. What kinds of programming would I have to study to be able to do something like this?

3) If I were to take programming up as a hobby is it something that I could teach myself through books and tutorials?

Even if you just answer one of these questions it would be of great help to me, thanks in advance.