Well from the sounds of it you've gotten on track! And that's something us Techies take for granted.
If you don't get on the career train for law or finance on time, you're de facto unemployable.
And this is why I love being in tech - we can grind and still find a strong path to upward mobility.
Hard skills like engineering, accounting, actuary, and medicine/dentistry/nursing are always employable. Sure you may earn less in some downturns, but at least we can get jobs.
And, unlike high finance, so long as you keep kinda up to date on technology and architecture, you can negotiate your way into IB level salaries (IB, VC, and High Finance pays fairly bad for the hours spent working, and I myself imagine returning to being a SWE).
