I was a 4th-year student in a maths / CS programme in Eastern Europe and had a part-time job as a web developer. Over time, I got the impression that being a dev is a low-prestige job with very slim chances of moving into any position of power. So I abandoned programming entirely, enrolled in a masters' program in economics and in 3 years got a job in M&A advisory at an investment bank.

Getting a finance job was not easy (two full recruitment seasons, 20+ failed interviews - even though I graduated from the top bachelor and master programmes in the country and the financial market was booming those years), mostly due to my lack of people skills. The people's mindset and mode of communication in business are much different from what I was used to in IT and academia. It cost me a lot of time and mental effort to adapt.

Note that I was only 20 years old back then when I started doing my master's in economics but there were much older people around who also succeeded in getting into investment banking, management consulting or other business-like careers of their choice.

Now, after 8 years in finance, I became fed up with it, left the job and am currently trying to break into the IT/startup sector as a CTO/co-founder.