[15kingben]

A related question: what type of software engineering work is the most relaxed? So far I have only worked in live services and while I don't feel overworked, I often have background anxiety that I will break something and cause a huge impact. Are there any product areas found at FAANGs that don't cause this anxiety?

[jwmoz]

Corporate, project and product based work. I was used to working slowly, lots of testing involved etc. No real stressful deadlines. (UK based).

[fart32]

I'm very satisfied not working for software companies. My clients businesses revolve around real estate, transportation, manufacturing, etc. For them, software is a tool, not a product. Apart from stuff you mentioned, such as relaxed deadlines, it's also much more interesting for me.

When I was working for software companies, understanding the core business of our clients wasn't really that important, at least not at my position - just bunch of APIs around RDBMS, that sort of stuff.

Now I get to talk to end users and they get to talk to me, resulting in me learning a lot of stuff completely unrelated to software development (which is often exciting) and them getting something they actually want.

Also, for some reason, SCRUM was very stressful for me. No matter the actual deadlines, the everyday standups, all the organizational meetings and constant surveillance made me think that all the issues are urgent, which was rarely the case.