In this video I’m sharing a few career regrets I’ve had as a software engineer—things I genuinely wish someone told me earlier. The first one is getting too attached to a mentor or tech lead. When I first joined, I knew shockingly little about real day-to-day SWE work, especially on a zero-to-one project at a high-level company. I leaned heavily on my mentor because they were not only insanely good, but also a friend—and when they left, the whole team dynamic shifted and it forced me to confront a hard truth: if a person is the main reason you’re staying, what happens when they move on? The second regret is around tech stack decisions. I’ve passed on great opportunities because I was scared of unfamiliar tech (like C++), even though I still had strengths I could rely on (Google infrastructure, full-stack, JavaScript). But I’ve also made the opposite mistake—switching too fast into a role I didn’t research enough (mobile/Android) and realizing the paradigms, patterns, and codebase reality were very different than I imagined. My takeaway: don’t be overly loyal to a language, but also do your homework—try a small course or project first. Finally, I talk about negotiation. Early on, I didn’t realize I was getting lowballed, and that feeling of being underpaid became an unnecessary burden. Negotiating (and doing compensation research) matters way more than most people realize—especially because schools don’t teach it.