Senior Software Engineer and Team Lead for a Analytics Contractor. Pretty highly paid.

I put together teams around projects, mentor juniors, and build cross project teams to fix architectural problems. My favorite part is actually teaching juniors and watching them grow. I live for that!

My advice is to find a niche that you love and stay away from industries that stress you out. There are a ton of different sub industries in SWE.

I would definitely stay clear of startups if you don’t handle stress well: startups and failing companies are the worst and for the same reason – they are both in a financial free fall trying to gain a new lease on life.