If I restarted mine knowing what I do now, I would have been honest about what I was passionate about with myself and went after that. I took a meandering road

If I restarted mine knowing what I do now, I would have been honest about what I was passionate about with myself and went after that. I took a meandering road to return to what I loved doing when I was younger (programming, hacking, etc). I spent alot of time worrying what others thought of my choices and acting accordingly, instead of worrying what I thought of myself and acting accordingly. I've been working in software engineering/data science/data analysis for about 5 years.. before that, my career path of 8 years or so had little to do with math and computer oriented work, although I was interested in those things as a kid and teen.