My name is Jason Pitoniak, and I'm a web junkie
When I started playing with HTML in high school, when the web was just starting to come into vogue, I thought I had found a new hobby. Through college I continued to teach myself HTML and, later, Perl scripting for CGIs, just for fun. When I took a job as a student programmer, developing what turned out to be one of the first learning management systems (LMS), I was already convinced that web development was not something I wanted to do as a career. I figured I'd land a job doing what I was studying--system administration and networking--and maybe do some web development on the side now and then.
Things all changed when, after graduation, I was offered a full time web and multimedia development job at my school. Through it, I became exposed to many technologies and was given the freedom to explore and do things the way I wanted to do them. As a result, I was able to learn technologies such as ASP, PHP, and Flash. I also studied and made myself an authority on web standards, cascading stylesheets, tableless layouts, accessility, and usability.
Today I oversee the web server environment and develop enterprise-scale web-based applications for that same 17,000-student university. I provide workshops and one-on-one training to faculty, staff, and students on topics ranging from technology trends, to web design, to using our LMS. I frequently speak at conferences on topics including programming libraries, AJAX, and accessibility. I also run a small information architecture business with an international clientele.
I guess I'm one of those lucky people that was able to turn a hoby into a career.