I know I'm not supposed to compare someone else's life to mine, but I have a friend who is the same age as me, had the same degree, but went back to get a second undergraduate degree in CS. He is making $89,000 annually — more than double what I make.
I'm working for a top 10 global tech company (albeit they're the client of my hiring company), but I thought I'd be proud of where I am.
Instead, I feel like I'm realizing that I am not paid nearly enough to live comfortably due to housing costs, and that I made the wrong career choice as a young, naive, 20-something who thought they could bring something of value to the world.
I think the cherry on top was the person helping me with on-boarding mentioned that this job isn't a pipeline to working at (unnamed tech company.) I kind of knew that already, and never expected it, but being told that out of the blue irked me. I guess being given a limitation is something that sort of already drove me in college to get good grades.
I feel like none of that work matters now. I'm turning 30 this year and feel incredibly disillusioned.