Accountants absolutely have lavish perks bestowed upon them by the "Big 4" - annual week abroad in foreign destinations for team building.
> doctor-level paychecks though
Neither do devs. In Europe, accountants are paid better than devs. With better hours(except at quarter end) and a straightforward career path..and no-BS job interviews.
Chartered accountants (still talking about company employed- not sole practice) earn even more - like 30% more than a senior dev.
Though it is possible to make more money as an accountant, there are far fewer directors and partners than there are senior devs.
All my other UK friends at low-profile companies are paid a fraction of that (certainly less than half, arguably for the same work, even in London).
The only explanation I have for it is entrenched low salary expectations and also knowing you’re competing with India, whereas on the US West Coast (which is where I live now, though I graduated in the UK) employers have already decided to hire local instead of elsewhere so you don’t feel an unstated pressure to compete on-price with others. The fact Amazon and Microsoft are local also helps.
Regarding class co mingling, really? Your statement seems like a projection. Where does it come from? I doubt you have spoken to many of your neighbors, much less asked what they do.
My neighbor is literally a construction worker.
Ditto. Which is very handy from time to time. :-)
I live in a building with lawyers, bankers, sales people, construction workers, paramedics, and so on.
Enterprise Java and .NET shops are all over the US, and those are much more like Office Space. In fact, I'm fairly sure Office Space was filmed in Texas, not California.
I watched the movie much later than most people on this website and was most shocked by the fact that he was neighbors with a construction worker. That sort of class co-mingling seems vanishingly rare in my social circle.