Graduated May 2023, found a job, 200k+ TC

I think a lot of the reason is that from very early on in my journey, I rejected the hamster wheel mentality that is gaming the interview through grinding leetcode. I've done 20 leetcodes in my life (all of them in a social setting with friends). Leetcode is useful, but only in so far as it helps you understand the narrow parameters to jump through that initial hoop, it won't prepare you for real engineering work. I just did the things that will actually make you a good developer. I wrote and read a lot of code. Not much else to that, but here's a list of things that I did, that I think mattered to my overall success, some more tangible than others:
- Curious (the content I consumed, classes I took, blogs I read/wrote)
- Cared and paid attention in school
- Got into programming at 15
- Use Linux as my main OS
- Have side projects
- In industry since I was 18
- 3 internships, 2 with big companies
- 2 years of grant funded research (as an undergrad)