[Tcepsa]

At 27 I had not accomplished particularly much. I had one solid accomplishment under my belt from my first two years out of college and then bounced around for the next couple of years. I had just accepted a new position at a large, prestigious organization that did a wide range of work... and proceeded to spend the next four years or so muddling along. Doing fine work, but still not really a great fit. Got a Master's in CS during that time, learned some things about graphics programming and systems design and broadened my toolbox a bit... And then in 2012 I got an opportunity to work on a new project, in a different language, outside my group. It was a better fit, still not great but I got to meet new folks and start learning (finally, in my early 30s) to reach beyond the role I'd been given and develop a good reputation outside my group. Shortly after that I switched groups to the one that new project was primarily in. Within a year or two of that I was tapped for a prominent role on something of a long-shot project, and we were very successful, leading to expansion of the effort to other equipment and substantial additional funding. At roughly 34yo I was invited to be the Assistant Project Manager on both efforts to help share knowledge, tooling, and ensure they were leveraging common functionality effectively. This went great for a couple years, at which point I was asked to head up the UI team of another ambitious project that was just getting started. That also ended up being extremely successful and is still running today, but I have determined that that degree of management is too stressful and not very satisfying for me. I have stepped back from formal management positions and have pivoted to technical leadership and contributions.

Now, in my early 40s, I feel that I am finally starting to hit my stride!

[abdnafees]

Damn, that's quite a journey. So happy to read through it. I think I wouldn't say that I haven't accomplished much because if you go through my LinkedIn and know me personally you would say I am in the top 10% in my country but (very sorry but there is but), it's all spread out. It took me years to consolidate part of that knowledge and build a portfolio that includes one of Big 3 consulting firms and I missed out on building cool stuff in my favorite programming languages and tools. Missed out learning from cool courses and much more. I shouldn't do this with myself because of clinical depression but I can't help it.