⚠️ This is going to be personal.
When I was a kid I wanted to be a lot of things: an inventor, a magician, and a psychologist. That’s why I’ve become a software engineer. Bear with me, it will (hopefully) make sense.
Up until university I never really understood what programmers are doing at work because I could not imagine how writing simple calculators - the way how I was learning programming - is by any means useful. And I was right. Just writing the code is only the tip of the iceberg.
I had plenty of other interests. For example, I wanted to be an inventor. I didn’t care about what my inventions should be about. I was thinking it should be something novel, and creative, that will help the world. After an eternity of thinking about my first invention, I (unsurprisingly) didn’t come up with anything useful. But the desire to invent stayed.
Then Harry Potter came into my life, and I was enchanted 🤭. I wanted to be a magician! Study long and hard, discover arcane truths, and make changes to the world around me just by the power of thought. Only intellect was the limit. I loved the idea that you can create something out of nothing. But then an invitation letter to Hogwarts did not come (I thought I was the only one with such a fantasy) and I moved to other fantasy and sci-fi worlds. But the idea to create real things with my mind stuck.
When I was applying for secondary school I was determined that I wanted to be a psychologist. Although I’m not (and never was) very good with people in groups, I always could create a rapport with people I cared about when one-on-one. I was amazed about mind complexity and by the fact that just by talking with someone you can help them to get unlocked. But since the exact world of STEM was more appealing to me than the not-so-clear waters of psychology I did not pursue it further. I still enjoy one-on-ones, though.
Now, the most useful trait that has led me to my profession was my understanding of math and science. But I see that being an engineer is more than resolving problems at hand. My inventor phase learned me to appreciate the building. To be happy with my work just because I made it, and not because it is perfect (because it never is and never will be). World of magicians showed me that creativity can be a decisive quality, and you can indeed create something out of a thin air. Just think about it hard enough. And my interest in psychology helped me maybe the most. I discovered long ago that no human work can be done in isolation, we are working in teams and to do work effectively we need to cooperate effectively. And the work with and for other people is what makes our day-to-day work meaningful.