[lipstone]

I worked in undergrad as a research assistant in an astrophysics simulation project and was involved in some of the numerical programming. I found the work very interesting and intellectually rewarding.

Unfortunately, IME, the effort vs financial reward ratio is completely blown out of the water by general software. I make >3x what the postdocs were making with less experience, less education, and (speaking generally) less intelligence.

Obviously there are industry positions that pay better, but the general trend is you will be compensated far less than you could doing general software development.