Don't Call Yourself a Programmer, and Other Career Advice⁠↗

Engineers are hired to create business value, not to program things: Businesses do things for irrational and political reasons all the time (see below), but in the main they converge on doing things which increase revenue or reduce costs.

Co-workers and bosses are not usually your friends: You will spend a lot of time with co-workers. You may eventually become close friends with some of them, but in general, you will move on in three years and aside from maintaining cordial relations you will not go out of your way to invite them over to dinner. They will treat you in exactly the same way. You should be a good person to everyone you meet ⁠— it is the moral thing to do, and as a sidenote will really help your networking ⁠— but do not be under the delusion that everyone is your friend.

You probably don’t want to be first employee for a startup. Be the last co-founder instead.)