JorenBus

3440×1440 at 144 Hz will require DisplayPort 1.4.

At least 1440p 144Hz should work on pretty much any DisplayPort capable card of the last few years, though for gaming it depends a lot on which games specifically and if you really want 144Hz that badly.

I would also look into the Infosec path (information security). The roles range from extremely technical to just needing to understand principles and make sure they are enforced. I mention Information Security, because it has a massive deficit of people in the field (Tons of open positions and no where close to enough to fill them). Then you have to look at the pay and generally it is VERY good. Entry level Cybersecurity pays in the 65-80k range depending on background, education, etc. After 2-3 years that jumps up again to the high 80s to mid 90s. 5+ years and you can easily be making 6 figures. Now some of this changes depending on where you live... so if your cost of living is low you might need to drop that by 10-15% across the board, but I am mostly speaking to averages which are some of the best in IT.

I'm not going to lie - being a software tester bored the shit out of me when I did it.  However, I could see an accountant being much better built to live with the monotony of the job.  Some people are much more fascinated with gathering data than I am and that mindset makes the job a breeze.  Good luck to you.

I'm a network solution engineer and most of my job deals with testing and validation of solutions and the software the equipment runs and I have to say I love every minute of it. I feel like a kid in a candy shop every day and I look forward to doing my work. I've been at it for about 6 years now and I don't see myself getting bored any time soon. What I will say though is that strict software testing of a specific component and repetition is going to bore you quickly so hopefully you'll be doing more end to end testing of software. It requires a different mindset, sure there is white box testing which is valid and good to test, does input of x output y and does everything in the middle work and you can see it going through the steps. That's a good step into the field but getting into more black box testing is what's really fun because you know that if you put in X you should get out Y but you don't necessarily know what's inside or how all the bits and pieces work inside that box so you have to dig into it, learn the ins and outs, and challenge yourself to break it. Does putting in a number instead of a letter return expected output? Does putting in the same thing a couple times produce the same output? Stuff like that.
 
Working your way up to a solution type of testing is where the real fun, at least to me, is at. Taking box 1 and connecting box 7 and cabling that up and then tossing in a bunch of features and functionality and more boxes and seeing does everything interact together, does it all work as expected, can you fail X links and get convergence in under a certain time, does traffic converge eventually or just die, that sort of stuff is what I love doing. I've worked on so many various technologies and software types and it's constant learning and personal growth and if you can drive yourself to always learn and improve then you'll go far. Learn what fuzzing is, learn what different testing methodologies are, learn how to think like a USER and not a developer and you'll set yourself up to go far.
 
To address some of your questions specifically:
1. It HIGHLY depends on your company, management, etc. I work whenever to whenever M-F and so long as the job is done and customers are happy nobody says anything. Other companies in the IT industry are super strict you must show up at 9 and you must not log out before 5. I could not stand working strict hours and I love having flexibility to not only work reasonable hours on a day by day basis but having that ability to start at 6am one day and then having a doctor appointment or something the next and being able to come in at 10 is so amazing and to top it all off having the ability to work from home a couple days a week if I need to as well.
2. Depends on what testing you do, your company, etc. and how much you push yourself to get better. The ladder can always be climbed by anyone who is willing to put in the time, show value, and grow themselves and the company.
3. A functional analyst specializes in in a technology or field but I've not heard of functional analysts in a validation role though. Looking online it seems they more focus on the project and planning aspect of things as opposed to the testing side of things.

Anything around testing methods and methodologies, the different types of testing, etc. would all help out. I don't have anything specific in mind but if you're doing a lot of software development and testing then SDLC, Agile/Waterfall, etc. would all be good things to know really well.

they copuld be better depending on whta your looking for if you want a more neutral less sharp sound the 58x is a good option but Imo not as good fro gaming. the 6xx is not very good fro gaming as it has a narrow soundstage and the imgaing isn't as good as the 990 or the 58x
 

the sound signature isn't really as neutral as the 598 but still plenty good meets your cable needs that I can think of is the akg 712. its a nice warm headphone. most heapdhones I can think of are dual sided detachable or non detachable. 

As you can see in this picture 
, my SSD gets detected but I can't select it as boot drive as seen below

The company is allowed to track whatever they want on a phone they purchased for you with the intent you're using it for company related tasks. It's to make sure you're using their resources in the manner intended.

I kept mine separate... paying my own phone bill is well worth piece of mind.  I did read the fine print and it seemed like they were saying everything on the phone could be subject to being tracked and was considered company property.
 
Just the other day I was on with tech support for an issue and they have access to everything.  Definitely my policy to keep the two separate...

Make it a separate line and obviously only use it for work related stuff, no porn!

Keep work and home separate, it would be annoying to receive both personal and work calls through one phone, and plus you want to keep your privacy.

It's best practice to keep work and home separate, this goes for all technology.  It is likely they will be able to monitor a lot on their phone.
 
 

This is the best decision.
 
Keep one phone for company/work related tasks, another phone for personal use.

I would stick to having 2 phones. Keep your personal information. As you mentioned you want to keep your information to yourself. Then do that.

If your current monitor is working, and assuming 1080p 60hz, then keep that.
 
If I had to choose between the two options, and if your main tasks are word processing and web browsing, then 1440p might be the better choice between the two just to give you more real estate space to work with on the screen.

4GB is a *tad* low for 1440 for many games if you want high/ultra settings.  For Fortnite, and CS:Go, I'd say you're fine.  Not sure about Overwatch, never played it.
 
For your second question, it really depends on the monitor.  Some do great, some don't.
 
 

Sapphire has an excellent reputation so yes it's a good choice.

well then its just all the other requirements i mentioned.

RX580 for shure. Its 10% faster and has way more Vram to play with (3GB isnt enough anymore).
 
You also get a wide selection of freesync monitors to play with.
 
Thats an awful comparison website. 
 
The GTX 1060 3GB is a cut down 1060 6GB with 10% less performance. The RX 580 perform lile a 1060 6GB.
There is no difference in performance between the RX 580 models, the only difference is Vram ammounts

Sounds like a defective GPU to me.

I just tried the steps from @Amazonsucks and haven't had a crash since.

well if you want to upgrade, then I would recommend starting with the speakers since it is probably there you are going to notice the biggest difference and then go to the amp and then DAC.
 
Though all that matters is that you are happy with your setup.

I've typically found that the 3-pin only fan hubs with no 4-pin 1st header don't work the way most people think they would. I do agree that they have a higher and less uniform resistance which is a little annoying, however I haven't experienced increases in resistance to the same degree you have - luck of the draw I guess.
 
Cool no problem, you could buy a splitter which would cost you around $5-$10.
 
However getting a new fan is not a bad idea, you'll at least have a spare fan if your need one then.
 
The Pure Wings 2 will have roughly the same cooling ability, in all honesty having any fan there will do the job - it just comes down to noise, air flow and aesthetics.