I worked in the kernel team many moons ago helping improve the performance and then built the .net clr later. Also worked on a NT Filesystem called Cairo. So I guess I have experienced both kernel dev and backend framework dev.
Kernel code is amazing, especially the parts written by the early members like DaveC, MarkZ and others.
For me the biggest part was working with a group of extremely smart people who were very nearly the best programmers in the world.
I really miss that outside of Microsoft. I would imagine that you can get the same experience if you worked with the Linux kernel dev team or some of the other few places in the world like FAMGA where you can work.
My suggestion is to go for it.
After leaving MS I found peace by working with the open source community and open source software.
Kernel code is amazing, especially the parts written by the early members like DaveC, MarkZ and others.
For me the biggest part was working with a group of extremely smart people who were very nearly the best programmers in the world.
I really miss that outside of Microsoft. I would imagine that you can get the same experience if you worked with the Linux kernel dev team or some of the other few places in the world like FAMGA where you can work.
My suggestion is to go for it. After leaving MS I found peace by working with the open source community and open source software.
Hope that helps, happy to discuss further.