unfortunate because even if one couldn't get into a high paying job, one could try getting into an interesting one. Since they're the same, it's both or nothing. Thus it's fortunate for those that get those, but unfortunate for the rest. : )

Academia provides fantastic opportunities for paycut and interesting work. I did that for way longer than I should have. Seriously look for programmer positions in research institutes. Want to write code that studies Protein folding ? Genomic research based on deep learning ? Simulations for physics or biological experiments? done done done.