[spenczar5]

The sibling comment pretty much nailed it. I saved well over 75% of my income as a PE and have more than enough money accumulated, so I'm not worried. My wife works as well, and even though we're in a pretty expensive area (Seattle) and have a child, we're very comfortable.

I get paid $110,000 per year, and have great benefits. It feels like plenty to me, even though I don't save nearly as much anymore.

I agree it's a luxury from putting in time at AWS. I don't think I'd be as comfortable (psychologically, anyway) if I had gone straight to academia.

[lumost]

Curious what a role in non-academic scientific computing looks like. How did you get into the field? what kind of companies have this kind of role?

[spenczar5]

Oh, I work at the University of Washington in the astronomy department - so, definitely academia. I am just classified as “professional research staff,” which distinguishes me from students and faculty.

As I mentioned below, I got into this field by emailing a professor out of the blue, essentially saying “Hi, I am a software engineer interested in working on astronomy software. What’s your world like?”

[yks]

That’s a dream of mine (astronomy and SWE) but alas earning money is a higher priority right now and unclear when that will change