One of my early jobs (as I was teaching myself to program) was at a large consulting firm. The job didn't require any sort of programming. Many of the business processes at the company revolved around manual processes and data-entry/manipulation in Excel. After a month, I recognized a process that could easily be completed (more thoroughly and efficiently) by a script. I spent the next few weeks after work learning how to manipulate Excel, scrape data from websites, and package Python scripts as standalone EXEs. I showed my work to one of my colleagues who showed it to others. A few more iterations of this process resulted in my colleagues lining up to see what could be automated out of their processes. My job title hadn't changed, but I was then working full-time as a programmer.
After a while though, when I felt I was no longer learning as much as I'd want to -- I decided to look for a new job in the software industry. With my experience writing code at the consulting firm, I was able to find a decent job at a software company.
tldr: Programming is valuable for many jobs (not just software shops) and it is often easier to get your foot in the door and spend your days writing programs there.
After a while though, when I felt I was no longer learning as much as I'd want to -- I decided to look for a new job in the software industry. With my experience writing code at the consulting firm, I was able to find a decent job at a software company.
tldr: Programming is valuable for many jobs (not just software shops) and it is often easier to get your foot in the door and spend your days writing programs there.