My father is from a generation where, from the day he got hired to the day he retired, 45 years later, he worked for the same employer. That changed in the 1990s.
That changed in the 1990s because companies no longer valued long term commitments. The famous example is IBM laying off, in bulk, countless long-term employees in the interest of increasing their bottom line.
The only way I was able to get a pay raise in the tech industry was by changing jobs. Once I figured that out, I changed jobs about once a year to triple my salary. On the way of doing this to climb the corporate ladder, I saw a lot of unethical behavior:
I saw countless dot-com startups dissolve after all of the executives gave themselves as big of a golden parachute as possible; I had consultants tell me to put experience I never did on my resume; I saw a company closing shop without paying their employees their final paycheck; I saw (and still sometimes see) hucksters promising good work and “exposure” but saying they could not pay you “for the time being”; I see companies demanding extensive experience (the infamous “ten years of React” job posting -- keep in mind React has been around for under seven years) but never offering on-the-job training; I have seen people who have developed injury or disabilities interfering with their work being “laid off” without warning; I have seen big tech companies refusing to hire anyone outright and cut off contracts short in the interest of maximizing CEO pay and shareholder value.
In short, I have become cynical about the tech industry and how it treats employees. Sure, it’s a living wage, but they won’t hire you if you mention “work life balance” during the interview; they expect long hours from their employees and expect the company to become their passion or life. No wonder why fewer people in America decide to give birth to and raise kids; it’s just not possible with the insane hours tech companies expect from their employees.
Yes, I’ve become quite cynical about the tech industry. It chews up workers and spit them out. The happiest memories of my life are not being in some cubicle in some office making too much money, but the times in my life when I took a break from tech and supported myself as an English teacher in another country, and had time to actually make real world friends and be able to date normally. Those are the times I cherish; that and the time I spend with my beautiful daughter.