Was a college dropout, working at a factory. A really grimey sweat-shop type place. I had just come to accept that this was my life. Then they needed an IT person for the afternoon shift. Someone told HR that I “knew computers”. I almost didn’t apply, but the HR manager approached me and asked me to. That was about… almost 20 years ago.
5 jobs later and I’m now a professor and finishing up my MSc. Computer Science. That one person who said I knew computers changed my whole life. I’m still not even completely sure who it was.