I also empathize with "I had ZERO knowledge about what programming is really like as a career". I decided I wanted to do it around 10 as a career (or "electroni

I also empathize with "I had ZERO knowledge about what programming is really like as a career". I decided I wanted to do it around 10 as a career (or "electronics") but I thought I would be making games in machine code for the Acorn Electron :-). My dream would have been to use a "compiler" ha ha. I think the role of the programmer has changed maybe from a pioneer / highly technical research to mostly a tool for businesses. All my jobs since 2012 for example have required me to log time into some system an be called up when things take too long, and since 2011 being using 'agile' methodologies of some sort, which are processes trying to in my opinion make programming more like a production process. I think my best be in hindsight would be to have done a PhD and then moved to the USA and worked for Google for a bit. Then i'd have the killer company on my CV plus the PhD and then can get some cushy jobs anywhere in the world. Not that it would have been easy to get into Google in the early days. But who can predict these things ... and if I could predict that well I'd just have hoarded Bitcoin or something.