The answer will certainly depend on "get paid well" level. What's your current pre-tax salary, and how much are you willing to go down or want to go up for this transition to be worth it?
I have been at (or have VERY closely worked with folks at) all levels of skill, responsibilities, and salaries. Let's assume you want to stay in scrum/SE role. I am of the opinion that within SWE, you can find your fit as long as soon as you define which two out of three of these qualities you want, and which one you can give up:
(1) High salary. (My metric is: get paid at least 50% more than a similar job in another acceptible part of your country.)
(2) Super interesting. (It wakes you up in the middle of the night from a dream, because you found the solution you were looking for for a long time. You rather give up sleep than forget the solution.)
(3) Stress-free. (Well, every job has its own acceptable levels of stress. Here I'm talking about level of stress that makes you want to consider finding less stressful job. If you are not especially lazy person, and find yourself wanting to switch jobs to reduce stress at least once a month, that's high stress.)
I have have some experience (first hand or second hand) with roles that match the combos:
(1)+(2)-(3): Start-up with goals to be bought out by FAANG within a few years, or go IPO in less than a decade of founding.
(1)+(3)-(2): Any team that has self-sustaining profit in a large tech company, or any large non-tech company that wants to seem attract tech talent without changing their non-Silicon Valley type culture.
(2)+(3)-(1): Any startup that is not VC funded, and definitely isn't on IPO track.
There are LOTS of exceptions to above, and there are rare occassions to find all three.. but if you want predictable long-term behavior, I'd say pick two-out-of-three on those, and that'll cast your widest nest. Finally, as soon as you frame your question with which of those two you want and which one you are willing to give up, you'd get a concrete company and role recommendations.
Cheers!
PS: I'm in a (1)+(3)-(2) in a non-FAANG tech company. My (1) is "relative" though, because I'm paid less than the company's average, but I also get to be fully remote in a non-expensive part of the US, so relatively speaking it's more than their average. I work on one of the most mundane parts of MarTech/AdTech (hence the "-(2)" status). I get sufficient autonomy, but I also have to show that I'm bringing the value to the company. It's not stress-free, but definitely manageable. I haven't had to work weekends in a long time.
I have been at (or have VERY closely worked with folks at) all levels of skill, responsibilities, and salaries. Let's assume you want to stay in scrum/SE role. I am of the opinion that within SWE, you can find your fit as long as soon as you define which two out of three of these qualities you want, and which one you can give up: (1) High salary. (My metric is: get paid at least 50% more than a similar job in another acceptible part of your country.) (2) Super interesting. (It wakes you up in the middle of the night from a dream, because you found the solution you were looking for for a long time. You rather give up sleep than forget the solution.) (3) Stress-free. (Well, every job has its own acceptable levels of stress. Here I'm talking about level of stress that makes you want to consider finding less stressful job. If you are not especially lazy person, and find yourself wanting to switch jobs to reduce stress at least once a month, that's high stress.)
I have have some experience (first hand or second hand) with roles that match the combos: (1)+(2)-(3): Start-up with goals to be bought out by FAANG within a few years, or go IPO in less than a decade of founding.
(1)+(3)-(2): Any team that has self-sustaining profit in a large tech company, or any large non-tech company that wants to seem attract tech talent without changing their non-Silicon Valley type culture.
(2)+(3)-(1): Any startup that is not VC funded, and definitely isn't on IPO track.
There are LOTS of exceptions to above, and there are rare occassions to find all three.. but if you want predictable long-term behavior, I'd say pick two-out-of-three on those, and that'll cast your widest nest. Finally, as soon as you frame your question with which of those two you want and which one you are willing to give up, you'd get a concrete company and role recommendations.
Cheers!
PS: I'm in a (1)+(3)-(2) in a non-FAANG tech company. My (1) is "relative" though, because I'm paid less than the company's average, but I also get to be fully remote in a non-expensive part of the US, so relatively speaking it's more than their average. I work on one of the most mundane parts of MarTech/AdTech (hence the "-(2)" status). I get sufficient autonomy, but I also have to show that I'm bringing the value to the company. It's not stress-free, but definitely manageable. I haven't had to work weekends in a long time.