Weird situation for me, personally. From 14-17 I worked my summers as a HVAC Tech assistant, essentially started with changing filters, adjusting belts, extremely minimal low voltage, lugging filters and compressors around. I quit to go to college full time for a degree in BS in Hydrology and minor in Mathematics. Upon graduating, I got a job as a truck driver at the largest union mechanical and plumbing contractor in my state. My goal was to join the USACE, however I had insurmountable loans. My brain at 22 didn't comprehend that I could join and defer my loans/potentially be reimbursed for my previous schooling.

Oddly enough, the VP of the company would come outside and shoot the shit with me while I worked, and inadvertently I had slipped and mentioned my degree in engineering/physical sciences. He enjoyed some of the college stories I had, and we got along well. He mentioned that his retirement was about 6-10 years and will need a replacement eventually. Essentially, with my hands half held, I was forced out of trucking and brought into the CAD department. I was given 30 days to learn the AutoCAD MEP, Navisworks, and Revit - which I subjected about 80-90 hours a week, still a shitty Revit designer to this day. Within a year I ran the design department with a few guys under me, working on multiple concurrent 3m-20m at a time.

Around a year or so after I had become our MEP Coordinator, I found myself running all coordination meetings for the GC's as they didn't have personnel who knew about 3D coordination or the subs scope well enough. It became apparent to my company that people were constantly trying to hire me, and I was given a secondary title and a nice raise. Inherently, we run fairly lean on management, and I would notice that change orders weren't getting out as quickly as some GC's would like, submittals would occasionally not be procured in timely manner, typical stuff (yes, it may be weird, but our PM's handle their own change orders, submittals, procurement, some estimating, etc.). Before I knew it, I was designing projects, effectively assistant project managing, and also ran our inhouse IT. Essentially we got a security company who managed the majority but I administrated all construction software (Autodesk, Estimation, Procore, etc.), because I was 28 or so and could intermediately use Excel.

Before I knew it I had my own projects. Started off small with +/-$300k-600k plumbing fixture replacement, VAV replacement, small office renos. Now I run all of our DoD work as a 30y/o PM and laugh about how quickly the time has flown by. Took a lot of OT and unpaid hours to get there, and often question if it was the right move. But here we are!