I'm still in the typical 9-5 job since I'm way too young to retire (and we don't get paid the crazy money in the UK that software engineers in parts of the US do), but I've been able to settle on what I want and what I don't want so I have the power to walk away.
In the simplest terms, I just need to be at a place working on something I give a fuck about, which pushes me to smaller upstarts. This sometimes incurs a bit of a paycut but I see that as a worthwhile hit to take if I don't feel like I'm selling my soul to people I realise I don't want to work for.
Just gotta avoid the lifestyle creep so a temporary downsize doesn't contribute to mental distress.
The system is designed to capture everyone as a wage slave and every year there are more barriers put to keep the "pleb" in their lane.
The only way to build wealth (independence, freedom) for one's family is through starting a business that you can scale.
If you go to work at a company always think how you can use the knowledge gained there to start something of your own. Use salaried work as a paid for education, not a mean for living, otherwise you'll get trapped forever.
30 is a turning point, where most people realise about the situation they are in and look for escape.
> In the simplest terms, I just need to be at a place working on something I give a fuck about
That would always be one's own business.
If you are not in a position to run one, always ask for true equity in the business you want to work in.
Pro tip: avoid highly specialised knowledge that can only be used in particular firms e.g. highly capitalised or regulated entities. Yes you will be paid well above market rates but it will be very difficult to convert those skills into a business because you won't have access to the market as a solo entrepreneur.
Time and again I'll see that the people who start successful lifestyle businesses started off in a lower paying, more general career e.g. web development. It works because you'll encounter problems that apply to a huge market, and you'll have past customers you can tap into to sell your product that addresses those problems e.g. WordPress plugins or invoicing software particular to your region of the world. Boring but high demand software.
For example, you spend 15 years becoming a lead engineer for a vehicle manufacturer. But there's very few ways you can then that into a solo business, other than consulting (which is no longer the same work).
Yes, if all those miracles come true that lottery winner can retire early, but I don’t think that is a broadly applicable plan.
And Seattle is probably a much better place with respect to taxes and cost of living. Most other cities where FAANG will employ are fine. Don't have to be #1 to win.
Still a lottery winner with respect to the global employment market. But if you graduated with a US software engineering degree, you can make this happen.
EDIT: There are some people here who claim you can earn that kind of money outside the US, but they never give details when pressed, or describe some kind of very specific set of life circumstances you will never be able to replicate.
I invest 3.8k CHF / month from base only. All in all, I save ~100k CHF a year counting bonus and stocks.
After working in a 4k person org, I don’t think I could stomach working at another giant company.
I still get to play with software, but on my own time, and on my own schedule.
The difference is amazing.
They were a hiring manager. Candidate looked good on paper. Invited for on-site interview. At the on-site, the candidate didn't want to answer questions. They just stated that their race and gender were discriminated against in this field and if they weren't offered the job, then they would sue. My friend consulted with their boss and the lawyers and they decided to offer the person the job. They were qualified and they turned out to be good at the job.
When the CEO is 26, then it's easy to have a young workforce. In The Days of Yore, the C-suite was generally folks in their fifties, and the youngsters were forced to work with their chronological seniors. The older folks had the money and power, but they needed the creativity and energy of the younger workers.
If the workforce is all older folks, you get shipping product that no one wants. If the workforce is all younger folks, you get ... FTX.
Look at some of these "full team" photos, for many of these new companies. You won't see a grey hair anywhere, and, if you do, a bit of research usually shows them to be a Principal.
I fully admit that it's a world that doesn't want or need people like me. It really pissed me off, at first, but, in the aggregate, it has resulted in the first truly happy work that I've done in decades, so it's all good.
That said, some of my former employees are near my age, and were able to find work, but it took each of them, several years, and they didn't have the baggage of being a former manager.
Hearing experiences like these make me glad I never got a job at a startup or smaller “tech” company.
In my (limited) experience (about five years ago), the recruiters were always engaging, helpful and friendly. However, as soon as one technical person (usually young) got involved, the temperature dropped about thirty degrees.
I may not be God's gift to programming, but I'm not that bad. I do, for example, have over thirty years' experience shipping extremely high-Quality products, in very challenging environments. In many fields, that usually commands a tiny bit of respect.
They do need you, but they don't know it, yet.
Protecting yourself against discrimination doesn’t mean trusting the courts. It means being willing to lie or mislead people into thinking you aren’t in the category of people who gets discriminated against, making yourself too much trouble to fire, and finding open-minded employers.
If you’re in a disadvantaged group, you need to pick your battles, and accept that life isn’t fair.
Businesses have pushed heavily for at-will employment; this means that businesses don't need to say why people are fired.
So they don't have to write down why you were not hired, nor why you were fired.
So you have to prove that you were not hired/or fired for being in a protected class. This is extremely difficult short of a recording of the interviewer saying e.g. "so you're pregnant?" => can possibly argue discrimination, but it's still difficult. This kind of stuff works in a panel interviews or bad work environment when you can compel testimony from other workers who would rather risk their job over jail... but doesn't work well in 1:1 or 2:1 situations where one or two people just need to lie to avoid the lawsuit.
Personally, I don't take legal action even if I think I can win the case, because it's just too much time and effort, and I don't want my life to focus on said legal procedure for the next n months.
I assume other people also think they need to choose their battles.
Maybe isolating cubicle walls, snail mails, audio-only telephones, and non-engineer sales representatives were good things. And possibly VR avatars in the future too.
But anyway, the point is, threatening someone who hates you(for any reasons, not limited to their bigotry) to work with you is not the path of least resistance.
Also, I found out that some younger folks really hate us. A number of folks used the interview process to try humiliating me, and taking out their personal animus.
After a few of these, I decided "Bugger this for a lark," and just accepted that I shouldn't bother looking, anymore.
But I think people are being hoist by their own petard. I'm seeing folks in their forties, that never had any issue, finding work, hitting the wall. These were people that did it to others, when they were working.
We can't become other races, and we [usually] can't become other genders, but we all become old, so each of us will have a turn at the wheel.
Keeps me busy and up-to-date, and is extremely gratifying.
I'm getting ready to release an app that is a top-to-bottom system, involving a couple of servers that I wrote, along with a fairly robust native iOS frontend.
Works a charm. I've enjoyed it. Of course, I have to keep my scope humble, but I've always been able to punch above my weight, so it's working out.
If I was able to declare it, I'd never pay a dime in taxes.
I have heard that Steve Kamen, who wrote the "I Love New York" jingle, gave full rights to the state, and never has to pay state taxes. I haven't found anything that corroborates this, but it could very well be true.
The work I do, is for a demographic that tends to be ignored. I doubt there's any tax breaks, headed my way.
I've found that most non-tech folks don't have any idea how much it costs to have real talent working for them (or even crap talent). I don't feel like arguing about it. I can't declare it, so it's not worth the agita.
And half of the companies simply ghosting unwanted candidates with no response after the interview.