I worked for 5+ years for a PI at a prestigious institution. Overall my experience there was great. It was a lot of fun too. I got to design and implement fair

I worked for 5+ years for a PI at a prestigious institution. Overall my experience there was great. It was a lot of fun too. I got to design and implement fairly large projects early on as a junior engineer. I could use any tech that I wanted. I had maybe two dozen users at best, but I interacted with them weekly if not daily. That said, I was barely making 50k. Now I'm a senior engineer at a FAANG and though I am more financially stable, I am not having as much fun. I routinely push code to millions of users now, but I don't see any of them. I suppose the FAANG is a different kind of fun, but sometimes I just miss being the guy who's coding this awesome tool that's going to further scientific research, and your post reminded me of that. Maybe when I retire I'll go back to help some PIs with their software issues. I know they need the help.