Some tough love about this field.

The field is still giving out high junior salaries, just not to you.

The field is still giving out ridiculous offers to a smaller subset of candidates. You can comment with a story about your no name startup becoming stingier or rehiring laid off workers for a fraction of their original salary. I'm not talking about them -- the money has moved on to a new population of AI/ML focus and they're making more than your 10 YOE wish you could.

It's not degree vs bootcamp vs self-taught. It's pedigree and privilege.

We hired a junior engineer out of a coding bootcamp. Oh forgot to mention he is a Biology major at MIT. The world isn't divided between bootcamp and degree holders from second tier colleges, its often between those who has "it" and those without. If you have to ask if you have it, you don't. Go out and network and fake it till you make it.

AI is coming whether we like it or not.

This isn't some temporary web3 NFT phase. The players aren't some random coin startups and banks wanting a piece of you throwing away your money, but all the major powers in the world. Either it works out and we "meet the moment" or we literally die trying from using up all the power. You can dislike all the LinkedIn cringe you want - but it's coming for us all. Engineers won't get replaced by AI, but it will be replaced by Engineers using AI.

There is no "safe haven" job.

- You work at FANG? Yeah you will get evaluated every year by people you barely know and PIPed as soon as you're not punching your weight.

- Startup? Great you're growing fast and you love hard work but guess what one economic downturn and Saudis withdraws from the VC backing you and suddenly you're no longer worth the bet.

- Some fortune 500? Congrats you're a cost center. If you're good at not asking for money, you can hold onto your seat. Nobody knows what you do, and nobody will notice when you're fired. Sometimes you're kept alive by the sheer inefficiency of your department and you're just waiting for some startup to "disrupt" your entire dept. You better wish their VCs run out of money.

- Government - Absolutely terrific if you're an essential staff. If you're highly paid, trust me you're just one efficiency movement away from just being replaced. But all is good if you never demand anything. You hope that corruption works in your favor.

Your best bet is to always take the highest offer possible at the most prestigious firm and fail up as a career move. Never bet on a single place feeding you up to retirement.

It's just a job, but you have to love it.

You're spending a whole 1/3 of your waking hours at your job. You see your colleagues more often than any of your friends. Once you hit 40 (like me), your colleague is pretty much 60% of all social interactions. What a pathetic existence would it be if all you're doing is waiting to clock out and "enjoy your life". Time doesn't stop when you're at work. I'm not saying be a workaholic and love your boss, but you need to trick your brain into loving and cherishing in its own ways those 8 hours of work.

/rant