Just goes to show that, as with college, "elite" employment is for suckers. The only way to win the game is not to play.
So you have no interest in working in a collaborative environment, where almost everyone is quite bright, and where employees sometimes get to work on problems that nobody knows yet how to solve?
What environments do you like to work in, Dude?
None, actually. They call it "work" for a reason. If it was called "fun," there wouldn't be a problem. "Work" is what I do in order to make the rest of the things I want in life to happen, happen. If work is taking up so much of my life that there's no room for anything else, then it has to go, plain and simple.
The 40-hour work week is a myth, because it doesn't take into account lunch, it doesn't take into account the commute, and it doesn't take into account the time spent in off hours performing activities that prepare one to go to work. Depending on personal circumstances, the number is a lot closer to 60 than it is to 40.
And then there are people like me who are on call, and who have to do work during odd, non-office hours, and the number gets even bigger.
Thankfully, I have worked for employers who recognize that work isn't the most important thing in people's lives, and that if people are being asked to work overtime too frequently, that's not a YOU problem (as in, YOU need to work later, YOU need to work harder, YOU need to work faster) so much as it is a WE problem (WE need to prioritize better, WE need to allocate resources better, WE need to plan better).
Oh, and I also get to work in a collaborative environment, many of my peers are quite bright, and we're working on problems that nobody is quite sure how to solve. And then I head home sharply at 5:00, where I get to actually participate in my own family, eat a healthy dinner, etc.
