| Welcome to my world. Exactly the same age and situation. Lead developer at this point at a large software company. The positive side in my case is that I get along extremely well with everyone I work with. But other than that, I can't say I'm really happy. Realistically speaking the only thing that keeps me around is my attachment to my coworkers. Absolutely nothing else. Over the years we've developed a really good and efficient workflow and ever since the lockdown, we've had 2 or 3 major releases, one of which was the largest one we have ever done by a long shot. All went textbook. The industry is what it is, and it is filled with ass lickers who will get on your nerves no matter where you go. The type of people who make demands, won't listen to why they should re-think and then complain that what you have made doesn't serve them, even if it's word for word what they asked for. And when you confront them, it all ends with "Hehe, OK, can you do it like {{this}} now, sorry I'm not a technical person, hehe." Starting your own business is a lot of dirty work. Almost all people fail, sooner rather than later( see my thoughts here[1] ). You either have to be extremely lucky and have a secure client(s) lined up or rely on VC(which from what I've seen having helped friends with startups is a lot worse than the ass lickers in big corporations). I'm somewhat torn on your views on academia. For the most part it is irrelevant, unless you really dig into it. But then you end up into an endless rabbit hole of scientific paper references while new ones pop up every day. That is what I mostly do in my spare time (without the involvement of academia, just as a hobby at this point). It's like swimming through an ocean of seaweed. So at this point I am where I am unless something dramatic changes. Reading papers, experimenting working on personal projects and see where that takes me. For better or worse that's the only advise I can give. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23342537 |