[ex-aws-dude]

No because I used to work at McDonald's and loading trailers from warehouses before working in tech.

That gave me perspective that lasts even to this day.

I'm not saying this is true of OP but I've met a few people who constantly complained about working in tech and one thing I noticed is a lot of them never worked a really shitty/physical job.

It blew my mind in university meeting people who's first ever job was a software internship. I remember thinking wow they must have a totally different idea of what a good/bad job is.

I can't think of a better value job that working in tech in terms of amount of effort and schooling required.

[cableshaft]

I miss my fast food job (and especially my retail job), to a certain extent. I also worked in a warehouse and a factory for a bit, and there are certain things I miss about those as well. I don't miss the low pay though. And my health is no longer good enough (in part because I've been too sedentary in office jobs the past 20 years) that I can no longer stand for hours at a time (not even that, I can no longer stand in place for more than a few minutes at a time).

I could completely forget about my job when I got home, didn't have to somewhat keep a framework of some giant corporate spaghetti code soup in my head to a certain extent for months or years on end, and interacted with people way, way more than I do now, and made deeper friendships with my coworkers.

Also there was no risk of me working on something for six months and it get cancelled or shelved before it gets used by anyone. At least in fast food and retail jobs you're helping multiple people (sometimes hundreds of people) every day. In my corporate career I've often ended up working on software that only has a handful of high paying clients, or only used internally and not client facing.

If I could justify the insane pay cut and could manage it physically I'd probably do something like be a barista nowadays. Or be a teacher, maybe.

[keiferski]

Just a counter anecdote:

I worked in a bakery / dessert place for 4+ years making barely above minimum wage. 8-12 hours a day on my feet, making dough, talking to customers, etc.

I didn’t absolutely love the job at the time, but I miss the realness of it constantly. Making a real piece of food, talking to real people. The tech industry increasingly seems obsessed with making everything as fake as possible, and I can relate to OP on multiple levels.

[boredemployee]

Well, different people, with different backgrounds, have very different perspectives, feelings, and standards when it comes to the world of work. I’ve also had a physical shit job before, and I don’t want to go back to it at all, and between that and being a developer, I'd obviously rather be a developer. But that doesn't rule out the possibility of wanting a different kind of profession. the current state of things just isn't good. the fact that it's one of the few types of work that still pays well makes it seem like this 'privilege' is often used as an excuse for all kinds of wrongdoing.

[ex-aws-dude]

I think the reality is as a human your brain adjusts to whatever situation you’re in and that just becomes a baseline from which annoyance and complaints will rise up just the same.

But no one wants to admit that because it’s nice to fantasize about the greener grass, that there is some perfect ideal job out there.

[karakoram]

Yep, the whole industry is not in good place right now but tech is still a sure-fire way of netting $1Mil+ after a 5-10 year career, with the most freedom and in the most flexible way.

Several people I know who went to a good university and landed big tech/quant jobs early became millionaires (liquid 1,000,000) after 5 to 7 years. Some got lucky and reached this milestone way earlier.

Medicine takes 12+ years of education before bearing any fruit and finance has very little freedom.