Is career in tech high pressure?

I want to hear your opinion/experience on whether a career in tech is high pressure, depending on whether the role is in a startup, consultancy or something else(?).

Today I had to attend a job interview with a start-up while my kid was with me. The first question the interviewer asked me how my family situation is and whether I'll be able to handle (crazy) pressure. Then he went on how he's fed up with the work culture of people, especially data scientists in his team who moved from academia. To be honest, I've interviewed with a lot of people when my child was with me for various reasons(closed kita etc.) and never got this kind of (shitty) monologue. The question that comes to my mind is, in the technical field (e.g. Pharmaceuticals/chemical industry /Data science /analytics /medtech etc), how do I choose the company or job role to apply to (I wish some flexibility in time and ideally work from home option) ? Should I avoid startups altogether? Also I'm a (wannabe) career changer from academia, for one obvious reason that there's very limited career opportunities for me in academia. I feel quite depressed that my skills sometimes don't matter because I'm a mom. I want some advice from fellow career moms

Answer

1. If the interviewer brought that as the first question, then clearly it's not a good place to work for.
2. Tech especially is in a privileged place and a lot of people are seeking out people/family/remote-friendly working options. Regarding career in tech being high pressure: Job pressure is not only limited to the tech domain, in my opinion. And it also depends on the nature of the job itself, teams, etc. Regarding how would you choose the company or job: My one piece advice here is to start interviewing at a situation where you have nothing to lose. I often find people applying for jobs only when there is the need and end up being stressed, etc. Tech interviews take a lot of time and energy, so be prepared for this. Also consider the interview process itself as a 2 way process where you too can reject if you don't find it to be a good fit about what you want to do, with whom you want to work etc. More on helping you find the right job itself: Have a goal in mind during your job search about things that matter to you and start mapping these goals with the observations from the interviews. This way it will give you a better idea about where you want to go eventually. Lastly, you will encounter both good and bad, even at interviews. Don't let today's interview experience put you down. Should you want to talk more, or need advice etc. feel free to DM me.