Software engineer with degree from great university.
In 2019 I was a junior engineer for a megacorp and the salary was actually good, I did 45h/week and I could handle it very good.
After time and “promotions” I reached the mid-career title but actually my real pay for hour is lower because my actual position require 50 to 55 hours a week and inflation in my high cost of live area is insane (work from home revocated this year).
Asked for a raise and company denied it for luck of budget (the company is valued several hundreds of billions).
I applied to a lot of competitors but the salary change is minimal (5% increase in the best position I could get), new job offers have a way worse salary than before.
I'm seriously thinking to go back to my old retail job for a while because I'm burned of working this long hours for a little pay. 4 years ago the pay/hour difference between retail and my engineering job was huge. Now it's just 2 bucks for hour and the job would be a way easier.
Am I crazy to do it?
I have no debt, but I'm extremely disappointed that despite having a modest life and no children I have less that 2 years of life-expense saved, despite having worked full time since I was 18, having won several scholarship. I mean, I did the best, entered in a high paying faculty and I am still extremely far from affording even to buy an old studio and my saving rate is worse every year (my best was in 2019)