I can make 400k as a FAANG engineer working as a senior swe building cloud apps, APIs, frontends, business logic blah blah. I have zero interest in continuing with this line of work. Options: 1.) Pivot job title/responsibility into eng. management of aforementioned types of products. 2.) Pivot nto a more targeted and interesting discipline (robotics, bioinformatics, AI, etc.). Upskill required. 2a.) Do this via a Master's/ PHd. 2b.) Do this with a job transfer (maybe impossible?). 3.) Pivot into the business side of things (sales, product management, etc.) 4.) Run a random startup and hope for the best.

I have a degree in CS and a degree in Applied Math but 10 years of working as a SWE my math skills have certainly deteriorated. Non-target random state school undergrad w/ average GPA, a very high GRE score, and well respected brand name companies on resume (as a SWE).

In terms of my interest in the above options 2 > 3 > 4 >> 1

I know plentttty of PhDs doing menial engineering jobs or stuck in post-doc hell so I'm not sold on a PhD. I could be convinced though depending on certain factors.

The ideal would be a master's program that leads to an actual engineering specialization that is worth it. Has anybody graduated with a Master's in Robotics, Bioinformatics, Mechatronics, etc. and found the job prospects on the other side to be worth the effort? If I self studied state-estimation, control theory, and worked at a company doing ROS programming would that get me to the same place?