[askonomm]

I'd say far more common, actually. The vast majority of the worlds engineers do not work for big tech. Also, most of the engineers I've worked with never got comp sci education, or even any related education. They all learned on their own or via courses / bootcamps. And what is moderate wealth anyway? Most engineers I know who have 5+ years of experience are easily in the top 3% of earners in their countries. I'd say that's pretty decent moderate wealth.