I have some experience in this situation. About 20 years ago, I transitioned from employee to consultant. I do IT projects like fractional or temporary CTO in smaller organizations.
I do projects that last from 6 to 18 months, and in each one I learn about a new business, and often learn about a new technology. it keeps things fresh and interesting.
I can do this because my skill set is pretty broad and I have spent time building and maintaining a big network over my career - not necessarily attributes that can be acquired quickly.
I guess the only actionable advice is to consider working out side FAANG, and be open to consulting vs. employee. There's plenty of reward and plenty of interesting work out here.
As an expat, in modern usage, I have observed this as a US vs. Europe (or maybe vs. ROW) issue. In the US, IT is like networking and helpdesk, and in Europe, it is more the whole hw-sw-networking-development mass.
Actually the density is so great that lots of blocks have a bakery, and most have a convenience store, and usually several kinds of other shops, like clothing or stationery.
I was amazed that there were two model train shops within 10 minutes walk of our place in Barcelona. In a dense city, specialist businesses can thrive.
Yes. And, there are other possible expansions, e.g. Gates William.
This is likely no different than the MZ in the DOS exe header. Nobody actually knows (and says!) what MZ stands for, but it is believed to be Mark Zbikowski.
