My plan was to work for really large companies with a high salary for ten years and then move on to smaller ones. I made this because where I'm from, software engineers don't make close to what they do at large firms and people were moving to my state in droves that had been in or around these larger businesses and thus had a lot more buying power than I did.
I'll share that working at a FAANG or larger tech business is soul crushing if you come from hobbyist programming and computing. Over the course of that time, I've learned to somewhat adapt. I still work on high tier roles, but I don't work on things adjacent to my interests anymore and I don't invest nearly the amount of time I used to. Think, good boundaries for work kind of thing. I'll still probably move to a smaller business, but this attitude bought me a little extra time.
I'll share that working at a FAANG or larger tech business is soul crushing if you come from hobbyist programming and computing. Over the course of that time, I've learned to somewhat adapt. I still work on high tier roles, but I don't work on things adjacent to my interests anymore and I don't invest nearly the amount of time I used to. Think, good boundaries for work kind of thing. I'll still probably move to a smaller business, but this attitude bought me a little extra time.