You have nothing to be ashamed of. No one’s career path is linear. You draw on all experiences as you move forward, and I’m confident you can use this knowledge to provide insight that others will not have.

Most people change careers 2-3 times in their life, that doesn’t mean they start over entirely from scratch. I had a coworker who was notoriously the brilliant “numbers” guy — turns out he spent most of his career as a chef, of all things, and had only recently switched.

I studied astrophysics in college but my job is not remotely related to that. Yet it shaped my ability to analyze and problem-solve in a way that a traditional path to this job wouldn’t offer. Not that I love my job or anything, but just underscoring the point that education is always a step forward, even if you can’t yet see where you are heading.