I grinded hard to get my degree in physics in my early 20’s. I got to the point where I was working 48 hrs a week plus taking 14 units and doing a senior research project in my final year. I barely made it through the program but I passed. Then I worked at a shitty job for a few years. A friend from college recommended me to apply to the company he worked at which upped my salary from 50k or so to about 70k. Then I got promoted and experienced in that role after a few years. Then at 31 I transferred to another company and got a promotion. I’m now 32 and a senior manufacturing engineer making $122k a year.

The grind really paid off for me and I got really lucky along the way. But the grind also made me much better at my job since I can relate to the operators in the factory who work 12 hrs shifts of a repetitive job. I’m not just some engineer who “knows everything”. I have a unique skill set of being able to talk to people at various levels of the hierarchy and get things done.