Similar story here. I spent a year out of college unemployed, listlessly sending out job applications in an awful market and stewing in depression. When I finally got a break it was at a company full of old-hand COBOL and RPG-IV programmers... and they wanted to hire me to lead a huge web-based modernization effort! Me, a scraggly-looking kid, decades younger than the rest of the team, with no real evidence of my talents or experience. And likewise the pay was a pittance compared to what the programmers in SV were allegedly making. But the degree of freedom to do basically whatever I wanted, however I wanted, more than made up for it. To this day they're delighted with the work that I produce, and it's done absolute wonders for my self-confidence. And even though I could strike out for greener pastures at this point, the fact that they took such a chance on me is the reason that I stick by them.