At 25 I had just started my first job as a web developer that actually paid well. I had spent 4 years studying and preparing before I even allowed myself to app

At 25 I had just started my first job as a web developer that actually paid well. I had spent 4 years studying and preparing before I even allowed myself to apply to the kind of job I wanted, and when I finally got hired I knew way more than anyone at the company. If I had believed in myself at the time I could have saved myself a few years of working $12/hr jobs. I'm 33 now. There's been some good advice here, and I'll just add that it's really important that you take time regularly to think about what you're doing. Not a couple hours, but a week, or month if you can swing it. Something that gives you enough time to get adjusted to being yourself outside of work. You can get so wrapped up in being busy and trying to get stuff done that you completely lose sight of yourself and what you want out of life. I didn't get a chance to do that until paternity leave when my daughter was born and I had 6 weeks away from work. It was like finally coming up for air after swimming underwater and I was shocked at where all those hours of work had gotten me, which was nowhere I really wanted to be (professionally).