I don't know how you figure that affordable place means you can't be a developer, when software engineering is probably one of the little professions where this doesn't apply.
Also doing a year of FAANG should be enough to travel for a long while. What I earned in a 3 month internship was enough to pay my remaining studies and anything I wanted to buy for a long time. Don't take for granted what you get.
The dev jobs obviously still exist but they aren’t financially viable anymore and I would need to change careers to fit the local market.
> doing a year of FAANG should be enough to travel for a long while
yes and at the end of my big travels I’ll come back to a 1k/month rent increase for an even lower quality of life. This is not a viable long term plan. I already need to spend an extra 800 to rent the same unit I’m in if I was on the market today
> "I feel like I’ve always known what the best choice is"
That's an astonishing level of confidence / hubris. Also, many people choose to enjoy extended travel -- having saved $ in advance, and typically finding ways to live with much less luxury than your FAANG lifestyle takes for granted, and/or doing odd jobs or remote work/gigs, or teaching....
I would recommend that you find a way to broaden your horizons, either literally w/ travel or by way of books and ideally interactions with people outside the very narrow band of your current environs and perspective.
I live in a tiny old 1 bedroom apartment with no car and spend less than $100 on entertainment most months. You Americans are extremely spoiled. I’ve been doing this for 3 years already and I still can’t even afford a 2 bedroom condo. I need to save and live like this for 3 more years before I’ll have enough
What country are you from? Obviously this is all context dependent.
I do agree that thinking you’ve always made the best decision is a contradiction at the very least. You never know it’s the right decision until after the fact but also it’s impossible to guess how other outcomes would play out.
I’m Canadian. The only thing I could have done better is move to the states. I thought FAANG in Canada was the right choice in the long term despite the low pay but it’s a huge mistake. My life is a dead end right now and I need to get out. Until then I just sit here and cope and seethe
The mistake is Canada, not FAANG. Essentially no career choice pays enough to afford RE in Canada without supplementation. I recommend moving because things are going to get much worse before they get better.
Saying "FAANG" without clarifying "in Canada" was completely misleading. Since the only reason you brought it up was to signal high income, it must have been deliberate.
Also, you went straight from "I've always known what the best choice is" to "I thought FAANG in Canada was the right choice... but it's a huge mistake."
You're spouting nonsense and contradicting yourself.
Everyone else, sorry for having accidentally fed a troll.
Are you illiterate? I said in my original post that my compensation is adjusted for my own country.
> I feel like I’ve always known what the best choice is and the “path” is which trade offs I choose. There are no good options
Why do you act like I chose to work here on purpose? I wasn’t smart enough for the jobs i wanted so I picked the best option that was available to me. I was wrong. I know that an American FAANG job is better
Well, yes. This is the aim of a civilisation, isn’t it? To render banal what was previously trying, and raise to daily concern what was previously trivial.
Not to belittle your situation, which I know nothing about, but there’s nothing unusual about living very modestly the first few years of one’s career.
