I started my career as a shop kid sweeping and cleaning up for the other machinist in the shop. I learned what I could from them by asking questions and watching what they did. Most of the time they were good teachers, sometimes they still liked to give the shop kid a hard time though!
After high school I was promoted to saw operator and welder, and moved my way up to machinist. The shop did not have any CNCs at the time, so I was cranking handles for four years, and I'm glad I did  it's a skill that I still use to this day. 
Both machinist quit, so it was me, a 19 year old kid, and the owner. The first CNC in that shop was a lathe and the owner figured out how to program and run it all from the manuals, no u-tube then, that was very impressive. In the meantime I was working full time and going to college full time going for my Assocites in industrial tooling and technology, I learned just as much from school as I did the shop I was working at and was able to go from saw operator, welder to manual machinist, to CNC machinist, fixture designer, IT support etc.

I ended up moving on from there and going to a tool and die shop where started as a CNC operator and had my first taste of CAD/CAM.  I cut my teeth with SurfCAM and BOBCAD as a programmer and moved into the design department. From there I have had various positions designing tooling and fixtures, special machines and weld fixtures, on up to a Process Enginerring role at an aerospace company where I learned GD&T and programming and running complex CNC from 3-5 axis mills and mill-turns.

At every step in my career I have been able to learn new things and apply the things I learned and become well rounded in the CNC manufacturing environment. 

Please feel free to contact me if in need of any design or CNC related processing needs.