I majored in game development in college, which was both a ton of work and a ton of fun. Afterwards, I took all of those skills and went into a traditional software field. I think it was 100% the correct decision, and the default advice I give to people who are looking at the games industry now is, "don't."

IMO most people who are good enough programmers to contract or work in entry level positions at game development are also good enough programmers that they could pivot to web development or more traditional software. It hurts me to see the crap some of my friends put up with to stay in the industry, from standardized "crunch nights" to crappy benefits that don't start until they graduate out of some kind of employment "trial period".

And it's not even like I needed to give up my creative soul to work in software -- I still make games, I just don't make ports and contract projects. I work on my own stuff because my jobs allow me to have a work-life balance.

Obviously, everyone's situation is different. If people know what they're getting into, fine. And maybe my personal experiences aren't representative of other locales and positions. But at least anecdotally, I wish more people in the games industry were taking their expertise over to companies that actually appreciated them.