> Sure, I could have gone and re-skilled and learned another similar graphics API, but the second problem is nobody really needs people who write low-level Dire

> Sure, I could have gone and re-skilled and learned another similar graphics API, but the second problem is nobody really needs people who write low-level Direct3D or Vulkan or Metal anymore because that's all abstracted for you by engines. And there are max 5 or 6 companies in the world that even have the need for people who can do low-level graphics drivers. It's a career-limiting niche. I did that for a living and can only agree partially. First, the part were we agree: only a handful of companies hire graphics driver developers. This means that if this is your career you need to be willing to either put up with the idiosyncrasies of your employer or be willing to move geographically. As a result, people tend to stick to the same employer for many years. As for OpenGL becoming obsolete, it's like anything else in tech: you need to keep up with whatever is in demand. Vulkan/Metal/DX12 didn't appear out of thin air, they were created by the exact same folks who worked on older APIs for many years, so it really wasn't a huge paradigm shift for driver developers. GPU driver development is a perfectly valid career choice with good job stability and very decent pay. What I disliked about it is that, perhaps contrary to what you are saying, I felt that it was rather repetitive and after having worked on a few different GPU generations. Innovation happens in other areas like GPU architecture, not in driver development, but that's a topic for another day.