> Judging from your career path, you shifted from tech to money towards the start

What the hell does that even mean?!?

I started my career working on on low latency computing at a networking company and was paid roughly the same I would have earned as an IB Analyst at JPMC. If I kept climbing the tech ladder I actually would have ended up earning more than I do today.

> I preferred the hacking...

Vast swathes of the tech industry are working on actually innovative stuff AND being paid top dollar, such as my stuff in HPC being dual use.

> And tech != STEM, as biotech/pharma is rather different than selling ads and harvesting information

I know. Not all "Big Tech" is AdTech. And salaries for scientists in the biopharma industry are comparable to big tech salaries as well (not for the SWEs in that industry though - they're cost centers not generating IP that matters).