think about it rationaly or emotionaly, it's the same, you are swallowed whole by a corporate institutional machine, litteraly, all of, ALL of your time is at work, inside a steel can, ALL of your food is "approved", your clothing, you are monitored as to where you are and where you can go, when, and why, subject to a whole other set of laws, and so a good number of people who are doing it, are bat shit crazy, from all that and of course the physical reality of danger and bieng constantly in motion, "sea legs", and "land legs", and the specialists in every port, ready to liven up shore leave...never kill them, but dumping them unconsious at the end of the gang plank 20 min before the boat leaves, is fair game, with that bieng a feature, not a bug, for some number on every boat

you're not hacking remotely, you're standing watch staring at water for 12 hours and then sleeping in a closet.

source: brother did it for a while. good money but basically couldn't keep a relationship and found it was fairly joyless. he read a lot of books tho

How lucrative? FAANG or better?

MMA is a sweet deal if you can swing it.

Know a few folks who went through it, and several went straight military. Part of the reason is that you're still obligated to military service via the MMAm just as a Navy reserve officer, and the Naval services (Navy, Marines, Coast Guard) will generally take you since you're an academy grad and already know naval military leadership.

You're also obligated to the federal gov, not necessarily the service, so you could in theory try to be an Army officer.