@chappy | 12J | $2.4M thought it'd be better to bring the conversation to general. I've had an interesting experience. I was in DA and then DS and now am almost entirely in DE. DA is usually 0 work, but pays like crap around 55/hr max (unless FAANG). DS can be super chill or a PITA for slightly better pay. DE on the other hand is pretty good pay, 75/hr+, I'm averaging like 80-85/hr, but most teams work on AGILE which makes OE-ing w/o VAs difficult.
Also DS/DA/DE is almost impossible to VA since its such an in-depth thing. Unless you're just getting tickets handed to you, all of it requires such an extensive domain knowledge of the job, usually requires meeting with stakeholders regularly, and most Paki/Indian VAs just don't have the necessary skills to take on any more than "here's this scoping doc, finish this" etc....