Career is not the most important thing to worry about in your 20s.<p>- Travel a lot, to all continents.<p>- Start systematic, long-term investment portfolio.<p>- Reduce romantic entanglement with attractive, psychotic girls (s/girl/boy/ as needed).
- Travel more (both in number of places, and number of weird new things you try). Once you're in the throes of starting a family and settling in with a spouse, this becomes harder. A<p>- Learn new languages or skills (eg: music). The older I get, the harder I find this to do. I wish I'd started earlier. While this doesn't translate directly in your career, it can open new doors (eg: that assignment in Europe that requires fluency in Spanish/German that you might miss out on). It also allows you to break down cultural barriers when meeting new folks.<p>- Get more mentorship - find a group or person that has walked your path in your industry and learn from them. The higher quality mentor you can get, the faster your learning. Additionally, if you are inclined to go into a management position, start investing (or get your company to pay for) in a leadership coach.<p>- Spend less on material things (eg: new car, fancy house) and use capital as a leverage. Learn to make money work for you and grow your investment base. Additionally, use capital leverage to cut-out mundane tasks in your daily routine (eg: house cleaning) and use the saved time to double-down on other life/professional skills. Time is money.
I wish I could turn back the time and slap me in the face for majoring in Computer Science.<p>I should have gone something completely different; like arts, photography, even gardening.<p>What have I accomplished for majoring CS and ending up unemployed for 3+ years now and became a "jack of all trades, master of none"?<p>I guess that's the thanking part of getting things done and deliver before deadlines...who knows? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯<p>Also, if I had to choose between studying for a degree and go for a vocational program, I would choose the latter.<p>Technology for me is not worth it anymore; only as your hobby, because of the pace <i>you</i> choose to follow, not the stressful "catch me if you can" type of learning process.<p>If you want to succeed in your life in pretty much anything and everything is by becoming the best of the best at one thing, not on a stack of technologies much like how web development is pushing us to go for.<p>If I knew I would end up like this, I would have stayed faithful to C++ since 2003 when I first started using it and master it.
Once a week public speaking training through Toastmasters, Would have dramatically improved my professional and personal life. Doing it now in late 40s. Helping me grow my career seeker business (think resume editing, linkedin profiles creation, interview coaching, corporate workshops) and global network of new colleagues.