> I haven't had a single job as a software engineer that didn't have a constant background of distractions and interruption that prevented work from getting done

Same here. It’s actually kind of mind-blowing how little I get done at work compared to hobby projects, despite feeling as though I’m working much harder. In my free time, I’ve written my own global illumination software from the ground up, my own website, and a few open source libraries. In the same time at work, maybe one tiny feature for one internal tool. I understand why it happens and why it is necessary to some extent, but it’s much less satisfying than seeing the substantial day-to-day progress that can be accomplished on a solo project.