Sounds like you should launch your own company ?

> OSS has more odds of being higher quality and technical. But I have no idea how to break in.

OSS is the easiest to break into, just work on your own OSS and then you're into it that's it

May be a bad time, but universities and related labs certainly do offer challenges with a better chance of making a positive difference.

I did computer support for one of them. The projects were great and I almost moved "up the hill" to a national lab.

I have zero knowledge of openings, but there is a giant need of support to organizations fighting the destruction of such labs and of democracy itself. If I knew a suitable opening, I'd work there for free (I'm retired and looking out only for younger people at this point.)

You’ll never get near the pay, but there are tons of companies, while profit motivated, have much more interesting missions than selling ads to people, that are starved for talent. I’m not saying you’re going to find the most talented colleagues, but your ability to make a large impact is massive in a space that is huge. As just one example industrial non-destructive testing is perfect example, critical to aerospace, nuclear energy and other critical infrastructure, means that at the end of the day these companies are preventing disaster. There is a ton complexity around the physics of radiography, ultrasound, etc, and a ton need of modernization around the software around these technologies.

You could go work for the government as either a contractor or employee. The difference in maturity and competence is so mind blowing that will wonder how most software companies ever shipped anything to production.

Pay cuts can be worth it, but don't choose based purely on the story, choose based on the people, incentives, and actual work you'll be doing.