I spent over 9 years as a software engineer at a finance shop known for it's high turnover and burn out rate. Average life expectancy in IT when I joined eas 1.

I spent over 9 years as a software engineer at a finance shop known for it's high turnover and burn out rate. Average life expectancy in IT when I joined eas 1.5-2 years. I do and dont regret having stayed that long. Some of my long term health issues are due in part to my time there. No way to prove it, of course. I worked with a lot of great people, but years of sustained 80-100 hour work weeks, getting called on the rare vacation and the inability to have a personal life (only dated for a total of like 5 months in the 9 years I was there). I didnt get married until 5 years after I left, and ironically to the exwife of a former coworker from the same firm. The pisser is that I was grossly underpaid for 7 of those 9 years. I was taken advantage of because I was a mew hire directly out of college. After several years, I realized this as I became a defect team lead and assumed about 13x the responsibility I was hired for within 2 years. It took a written offer from well, Amazon, to get my pay adjusted. I got a 50% pay increase midyear to stay... Ive since moved on, and honestly, not sure which decision I regret. I'm still in finance, but a lower stress firm, with a dead simple commute, typically 40 mins in the car tops per day, round trip. Id be far happier if I was suffering from the pain of accumulated medical issues.