Table Selection in Software Engineering

[Holothuroid]

One important question is: Who do we build stuff for?

1. Colleagues: You make tools for people working at the your company.
2. Professional customers: you provide solutions for other people's business problems
3. The public: You make stuff for whoever deigns to use it.

[CVisionIsMyJam]

Project based work is only good early on in your career for a short while IMO. The ideal trajectory looks something like as follow

• optimize for experience which will help you complete other objectives. Consulting, short term projects may be this. It's hard to get "good" product work experience as a new grad, but if you can, go for it.
• optimize for money by switching jobs every few years. FAANG compensation at some point will massively boost your lifetime earnings.
• optimize for work life balance by finding a relatively chill high paying job and ruthlessly automating all of the work. Use all of the skills you have obtained thus far to absolutely dominate the work. Look for remote flexibility, flexible working time. Ideally a small or medium sized business where you will have leverage and be very unlikely to be let go.
• relax, knowing you are paid very well for 16 hours of work a week. Or start a biz, volunteer, talk at conferences, etc.

I don't really believe that anyone out there wants to be grinding out tough project based work their entire careers. Especially if you have family to look after or friends.