That's sweet! Node-RED and MQTT and definitely built for the great-ole' Internet of Things.
My knowledge of Node-RED actually helped me land a job that I'm starting at the end of the month, too. Real world applications! The job itself won't actually be using Node-RED, alas, but being able to understand flow-based procedures is apparently good knowledge to have.
That's very cool! AND congrats on the new job! When I think of all of the school students learning some form of programming in school, I see the value not in learning the language, but in learning how to think in a logical progression! As in your case where it's the process, not necessarily the language that is of value!