>For example it's not exactly a secret that 3-letter agencies don't pay software engineers anywhere near as well as other IT companies would, but the promise of

>For example it's not exactly a secret that 3-letter agencies don't pay software engineers anywhere near as well as other IT companies would, but the promise of doing something "for your country" is worth more than money(just like game developers sacrifice money to work on something they really like). You hit the nail on the head in explaining this dynamic, but I hate the fact it exists in the first place, in game dev or IC. It also exists with US special operations, as another way to sort out anyone who isn't a true believer. Fair, you might say. I just think it's dumb a Google/Netflix/Facebook engineer working on some boring cog in their company's infrastructure gets paid a top-of-market $250k+, while an engine programmer working on an AAA title makes half that, or a firmware engineer working on offensive cyber payloads makes half that, or a special operations solider makes half that. Maybe it's just market demand: boring stuff is paid better since everyone wants to do something exciting. But I think it's also a filter, and a lot of these places know that.