Would you be able to comment on how you switched to consulting?
I (mid 30s) am at the FAANG point where I optimized for compensation, but the stress of constantly having to make an impact and being subject to pressure from upper management and senior peers without being able to do much about it (“that’s why we pay you so much”) is becoming seriously damaging for my mental health.
I saved enough that I could afford the luxury of starting to optimize for work-life balance. I basically would like a job where I can do my 40 hours, be moderately engaged and keep up with new tech without excessive stress caused by large/ambiguous deliverables, and then enjoy my life outside work.
I was potentially even thinking about moving to a different career from SWE, e.g. developer advocate, solution architect, … but maybe consulting is an answer.
I wish I had a useful, repeatable answer here, but in my case it was basically all luck. A friend/ex-colleague had been recruiting me for years, but it was never the right time to take the plunge. Finally, everything aligned - the role became remote-only and stopped requiring travel (thanks to COVID), and I completely burnt out at my job. It was a good time to test the waters, and here I am, still doing it almost two years later.
I (mid 30s) am at the FAANG point where I optimized for compensation, but the stress of constantly having to make an impact and being subject to pressure from upper management and senior peers without being able to do much about it (“that’s why we pay you so much”) is becoming seriously damaging for my mental health.
I saved enough that I could afford the luxury of starting to optimize for work-life balance. I basically would like a job where I can do my 40 hours, be moderately engaged and keep up with new tech without excessive stress caused by large/ambiguous deliverables, and then enjoy my life outside work.
I was potentially even thinking about moving to a different career from SWE, e.g. developer advocate, solution architect, … but maybe consulting is an answer.