Hello all! I'm currently working on my BSCS at WGU. Expecting to graduate by the end of the summer.

I have 7 years of experience in a highly technical / technology-centric field and worked my way up to Operations Manager making around $150k, none of which seems to translate into the "typical" software development / IT / Technology Role (outside of my current tiny field) etc. job market.

My current Career is in the field of Geological and Geospatial Engineering (without a degree somehow). It's a LOT of data but all processed through no-code databases. We take highly sophisticated computers, program, and send them downhole to log Geologic data at minimum every 6 inches for 5 mile long wells, as well as Azimuthal data then process it and distribute it in a visual format for people to make decisions from. There's a lot of manipulation of data, verifying accuracy based on geological models, a fair amount of basic networking, troubleshooting, and messing around with Linux. It's all SQL on the back end and very specialized software on the front end. I'm sure I can tailor my resume to highlight that in a way that works.

My question is..... What are the highest paying career paths for someone who just Graduated with a Bachelors of Computer Science.

I'm talking about the fields that pay $130k+ right out of the gate, and the ones that might not pay as high starting out but have potential 2-300k+ outcomes.

I can get the certs, I can take the classes, learn the ropes. Which DIRECTION do I head after school.

I'm gonna go ahead and cut off the folks that are going to come here and say "don't do it for the money," "you're gonna hate it and get burned out."

Stop right there because I love technology and the only thing I enjoy at my job is coding little tools and automations that make my life easier at work which is completely out of the scope of my job. I already HATE my job and I have a family to support so the singular goal is

LEAST AMOUNT OF HOURS WORK DIRECTLY TRANSLATES INTO MOST MONEY OBTAINED

Ideally I wanna work like 50hrs a week, and have weekends off so I can actually hang out with my family. Right now I work 12hrs a day through the weekends and never see my family except bedtime and school time. I have young kids. Nothing will hurt your heart more than your 9yr old coming up to you 20 minutes before you go into a 12hr night shift saying "Daddy can you play with me?" While knowing you've worked 50 hours by Wednesday and only even saw him in passing.

Whatever path I gotta take to laterally move from this soul sucking career, to one with an actual work/life balance that pays at or near the same.