The engineers FAANG needs are usually not of the aerospace variety, are they?
And no, please don't use more start-up or software dev thinking during the development of safety critical hard- and software.
And no, please don't use more start-up or software dev thinking during the development of safety critical hard- and software.
One of my coworkers at the first startup I worked at out of college was an MIT-trained aeronautical engineer. He was re-training as a software engineer for quant hedge funds (at a salary lower than what I got), because aeronautical engineering didn't pay enough to support a family in the Boston area. Jumped ship for an actual quant hedge fund during my tenure there, for 3x the pay. Then the financial crisis hit and I have no idea what became of him.
I think this is a pretty common story for the personality type that goes on to become software engineers. If it were the 70s/80s, when both defense and commercial aviation were hot, they would've gone into aviation. Many actually do go into aviation as their second career, eg. John Carmack, Phil Greenspun, or Sebastian Thrun. But the money has been in software from 2000-2020, and so that is where the smart engineers go.
Ended up getting 3-4x the pay for 3-4x less stress.