I'm in my 20s and this is my updated career path.

I'm in my 20s and this is my updated career path. Let's get into it. I'm now two years out of college as a software engineer, content creator, and a master's student. Money details incoming. Scroll if you're allergic. Once upon a time, I was a high schooler who thought computer science was like learning how to fix your printer. Needless to say, my salary was $0/hr. My dad randomly said, "Try Computer Science." I was like, "I own a MacBook, basically qualified, right?" My first coding class was a medical emergency. Up till third year, no internships. But I knew the ancient wisdom: "Beggars can't be choosers." So, I took unpaid volunteer roles like I was building credit. I was helping professors part-time, extending my own school projects—all for zero dollars—and then finally, working minimum wage research jobs. Then, I got my first real internship at Wattpad. No idea to this day why they accepted me. I didn't even mention the questionable Levi fanfics I wrote in there. I remember smiling like my whole body and maybe all three orifices wanted to be there during the interview. I worked on Story Details and thought, "Yep, this is my peak." Fourth year, everyone's getting interviews, not me though. After a while, the only company that called back was Amazon. And I was like, "Bet. Let's make Bezos proud." I tanked my GPA all for interview prep because who needs a degree when you can reverse a binary tree? I went through 4 hours of interview, and then I got it. The salary was $160,000/yr. At AWS, I worked like a dog. 1.5 years later, the salary changed to $220K per year. Then, they tried to impose a location change. And I was eyeing the exit. Next came Pinterest. Honestly, it took everything I had and then some. I'm saying months of social deprivation and dreaming about Leetcode hards. I also got free food for the first time and briefly reached enlightenment. Out of nowhere, Google called. I wasn't cheating on Pinterest. They were just fashionably late. At first, I thought it was a joke. So, I kept grinding. But somehow I kept passing moments I'll never get back and memories I didn't make. When Google finally offered, I took it even though it was uncomfortable. It was New York City—far out of my comfort zone, with bigger challenges and more. That got me here. I now work in a machine learning team in Search Ads. Here's the real talk. Big tech jobs look glamorous, but you're just a replaceable cog. I picked big tech for the benefits. If I'm selling my soul, might as well get health insurance and free snacks. My end goal? I want to work on projects that I care about so I can build something real. If I get laid off? That'll be the kick I need to finally go solo. Always treat jobs as staircases to success, not the success itself. See you at the next step.