This exactly. Right now I would love to be working on amazing challenging stuff for these companies. Instead I have to decide if i want to go gungho studying

This exactly. Right now I would love to be working on amazing challenging stuff for these companies. Instead I have to decide if i want to go gungho studying my ass off for whiteboard interviews...and if I am insanely lucky I will get offered a salary already in line with my current one at a company that doesn't have billions in the bank...like all these SV companies that are so convinced there is some shortage.