Same for me. I was directly responsible for automation of AI infrastructure builds. It was miserable and I felt terrible. I transferred out of that org but now I’m writing software using the tools created by our AI infra. I made a lot this year due to equity increase and maybe next year but I want to be out.
250k is probably below the average pay for an Apple engineer, not to mention other costs and benefits. ICT3 numbers (just above entry level SDE) are 230k and ICT4 are 340k. 500k isn’t that difficult at the more competitive software companies located in tier 1 and 2 markets. But yes, CEOs and E levels make far too much for their impact.
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Taking away the headphone jack was more likely so they could try to make you buy $200 wireless headphones that need to be replaced every few years.