Meanwhile I'm strongly considering getting back into tech adjacent. My current division at work is busy but other sections are pretty bad, salary cuts and furloughs and layoffs and stuff all over. I somewhat enjoy what I do, parts of it, but other parts I really don't, and I don't see a ton of long term growth here, personally possibly but not company wise.
Got called by a guy I used to work with, offering a W2 contract doing what I used to do, and enjoy, energy management system OT stuff for utilities and system operators. I can go back to being an individual contributor instead of PM/manager, which sounds nice. Benefits are worse, no health or vacation or matching, but the hourly rate is nearly double my salary.
Work remotely, only downside is maybe 25-50% travel but he said I can negotiate down to 25% probably, and companies are learning through all of this that they don't need as much on site.