I worked at a big tech co years ago. Strolling up to my bus stop in my casual attire while others around me wore uniforms, rushing to get to work. A nice private shuttle would pick me up. It would deliver me pretty much at the doors of the office. If it were raining, somebody would be standing outside to hand me an umbrella even though the door was a short distance away. Other times there would be someone there waiting on the shuttle to hand me a smoothie. When I got to the door, there would be someone dedicated to opening it. When I got inside, a breakfast buffet fit for a king would be served. Any type of cuisine I wanted was served around campus for lunch and dinner, and it was high quality. If I wanted dessert, there was entire shops (not one but many) serving free handcrafted desserts. If I wanted my laundry done, someone would handle that. If I wanted snacks, each floor of my office had its own little 7/11. If I didn't feel like having all this luxury treatment, I'd just work from home and nobody cared.

All of that, and I was being paid a very handsome amount compared to others outside of tech? Several times over the national average? For gluing some APIs together?

What other professions are like this where there's a good chunk of people who can have such a leisurely life, without taking much risk, and get so highly compensated compared to the rest? I doubt there's many. At some point, the constrained supply must answer to the high demand and reality shows up at the door.

I quit a year into the gig to build my own company. Reality is much different now. But I feel like I've gained many more skills outside of just tech that make me more equipped for whatever the future brings.