I'm a software engineer. I'm working at a startup now after basically refusing to work at start-ups, or any kind of tech company, my entire career prior. I always worked at normal stable trustworthy non-tech companies that happened to need software engineers. I would still prefer to go back to the non-tech non-startup industry, but the offer was too good.

The process took less than a year. I entertained pitches from many many recruiters. I can't even remember how many. Most of them I rejected immediately because the jobs were beneath my high moral standard. I had introductory interviews at maybe 10-ish places. I actually went through the full interview process at only 3 places.

I was able to do all this purely because my existing job was stable and excellent. I would go back to it in a heartbeat if necessary. I was negotiating from a position of extreme strength with absolutely nothing to lose if the prospective new employer said no. I'm honestly afraid of a situation where I have no job and have to accept the first offer I can get. I might end up in a spiral of changing jobs frequently while trying to get back to a place that I find acceptable.

LOL, it generally takes me going through at least a dozen interview processes to both:

1) get to the offer phase

2) get an offer that isn't a lowball

> I would still prefer to go back to the non-tech non-startup industry.

As someone who has spent > 15 years in the tech-only industry, both in massive corporations and startups, I'm curious to know how someone finds these roles. I think I'd quite like something like this when I am ready to move on from my current (startup) role.

I live in NYC. NYC has a lot of companies in various industries such as entertainment, fashion, finance, advertising, etc. Some of those industries I refuse to work in, like finance and advertising, but you may find them acceptable. All of them have computers and software engineers because it's the year 2022. At bare minimum, those companies are buying SaaS products, but they still need experts to glue the APIs together with their internal systems. You get those jobs the same way you get any other job. Applying or being recruited.

You find them by applying to non-tech companies that are large :)

Ex-colleague of mine was interviewed by big pharma for ML roles.

> Most of them I rejected immediately because the jobs were beneath my high moral standard.

Earlier you mentioned

> Eventually a place made an offer I couldn’t refuse.

Did you need to sacrifice morals for this offer? Or is there some other reason you took the offer?

It sounds like he only applied and went through the interview process for jobs that already passed his “high moral standard”

Such standards necessarily may become more flexible as we head into a recession...

I did not need to sacrifice my moral standards for this current job. If that was the case, I would not have accepted for any realistic amount. However, if you ignore the compensation, which includes the reduced working hours, I must admit I would give a slight edge to my previous job just out of personal preference.