That&#x27;s actually a great question. I&#x27;d love to hear the answer, not only from the guy you&#x27;re asking but from everyone.<p>I&#x27;m 30 now. If I woke up 20 again, I&#x27;d like to be offered the following advice:<p>1) Don&#x27;t accept blindly the first paid internship you get, no matter how &quot;big&quot; the &quot;big corp&quot; is and how blessed your parents think you should feel (bear in mind, this was Portugal 9 years);<p>1.a) If you do accept, you don&#x27;t have to stay there afterwards. Don&#x27;t &quot;stay&quot; just because you&#x27;re comfortable, particularly if you know, deep-down, you&#x27;re not doing anything worthy or you hate it;<p>1.a.1) Even if you stay, move - sooner rather than later - if you suspect you should&#x27;ve already been promoted or &quot;grown&quot; inside the company. I&#x27;d say that, if you&#x27;re not promoted or adequately appreciated within 3-5 years, chances are you won&#x27;t be, at all. You&#x27;ll deeply regret the years lost at that company, particularly if you&#x27;re not fond of the business;<p>2) Overtime is a an exception. I repeat, exception. No money will ever pay the time you wasted in OT, particularly if it was for a company you don&#x27;t like or a product you don&#x27;t believe in;<p>3) A company funded PhD is a lovely idea if you&#x27;re in love with the company. If you&#x27;re not, or if you have any kind of bad feelings about it, &quot;run&quot;. It&#x27;s a very long term commitment, and the company will make you pay if you leave. I did; I couldn&#x27;t stand it anymore, so I decided to pay. Bear in mind, again, Portugal; tuition for a PhD is a lot of money here.