I have spent the last 10 years working for FAANG companies, but nowadays I find their performance-review and promotion obsessed cultures to be really draining. Worse, those negative feelings seem to be leaking into my personal life and slowly alienating friends and family.<p>Therefore, I've been pondering a change of pace. The classic HN answer is of course "create/join a startup", but I've also been looking at areas more adjacent to scientific research.<p>One option that has come up is the US Department of Energy's national laboratory network[0]. From what I understand, the pay is 33-50% of FAANG, but they do seem to have interesting projects (e.g. the nuclear fusion facility that was recently in the news).<p>Has anyone here worked at one of them before? What is/was the day-to-day like?<p>[0] <a href="https://www.energy.gov/national-laboratories" rel="nofollow">https://www.energy.gov/national-laboratories</a>