With recent layoffs and hiring freezes I'm struggling with where to proceed with my career path. I'd say I get good at whatever I do very quickly, but I get bored when the problems I solve aren't difficult. Because a lot of jobs in SWE are just another Spring boot web app and I really liked my mini side projects in AI, I decided to specialize and become an ML Engineer (I have ~4 years of experience in software dev) I entered my ML degree (MSc) thinking it would easily improve my prospects for a high-paying role, but I'm graduating soon and the job market is much dryer than anticipated. I was hoping to have a chance at early retirement because MLE jobs were offering stellar compensation(lots of active listings >150k), but now it seems I can, maybe, get a 20% salary increase vs my comp in 2020/2021.
Now it seems I have 3 options:
1) I still have a full time return offer as L4 SDE from AWS, but I'm just not sure whether that is a desirable option anymore. FAANG Compensation in Europe, or at least my offer, is not much better, if at all, than local competitors, or any remote-worldwide position. This role binds me to strictly software engineering, without much room for ML, and I'd have to relocate to a specific office, plus the contract is pretty restrictive on what I can do on the side. On the other hand, FAANG is said to be one of the best places to learn, and adds a great item to my CV (or does it?) - and hopefully once the freezes are over I could pivot into a more interesting position.
2) I'm awaiting an offer from a startup where I could learn new trendy languages that I enjoy, and the position is fully remote. The mission seems rather purposeful, though only a chance for future ML stuff and not a lot of top-of-their-field people to learn from that I know of - I'd be more on my own. Compensation here is similar to AWS. I'm also still actively applying but haven't found much else yet.
3) I've been looking into and creating profiles on several contracting platforms, e.g. A-team, that would most probably pay better than the other two options and have a higher chance at finding something ML-related, but I haven't yet landed any projects, and I have zero freelancing experience. I could focus on building out a few side projects for my github and/or create a website that improves my looks. I'm also interested in this because I do want to start my own business once I have a secure financial standing; it seems that not taking advantage of at least some of the low-hanging fruits in AI is like not buying a lottery ticket with a 1 in 10 chance of winning.
With the ultimate goal of making a decent chunk of money for retirement into more fun, purposeful, doing-my-own-thing or charitable work and/or traveling the world, what would you do here?
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