>> No amount of self-learning can come near years of work in a mission-critical environment when company’s revenue is at stake. So true!! It doesn't matter how

>> No amount of self-learning can come near years of work in a mission-critical environment when company’s revenue is at stake. So true!! It doesn't matter how much you read/experiment with distributed computing (or any advanced field). How many simulations you are running or papers you're reading on the subject. The only reason I'd sacrifice personal freedom to work for a big company is not money but resources/environment. They have data, millions of users, hundreds of computers and the kind of challenge that will simply push you and make you better at what you do. It kinda sucks in a way because unlike ECE or any "regular engineering", you don't need money/resources to do cool things in software. Unfortunately, I'm starting to realize that's not entirely true. As soon as you start playing with intense computing, you need $$$ That's really the only reason to work for a big company if you are _only_ passionate about software --> Data, resources, work environment.