Definitely look around beyond the Big4 hype, find a funded startup where you could be a larger fish in a smaller pond. You should be able to find a better cult

Definitely look around beyond the Big4 hype, find a funded startup where you could be a larger fish in a smaller pond. You should be able to find a better culture fit - nice work, nice people, value life after work etc. Don't believe that crap about IQ being fixed - the more you work the brain muscle the better it gets. Do puzzles you enjoy that are hard ... if that's whats between you and your ideal place of work, you can improve that with practice. You can try reverse psychology too - Jeez, Im an idiot, but how would a non-idiot do this puzzle ?? A lot of problem solving is not about raw IQ .. theres practice and skills, and having a big bag of tricks, and creativity.. and persistence. People aren't born doing puzzles..they learn it. None of us are Einstein or Feynman .. but we do what we can, work at our craft. Perhaps just measure your effort going in, not the results coming out, at least for a while ? You seem like a decent human being. Things will come around.