[GFischer]

My slightly different take on this:

At the beginning of your career, I think the most important thing is to learn. Any company where you're learning a lot is a good place to be.

But I think you need to be able to learn to like what you're doing, even if it doesn't sound like your cup of tea. Get out of your confort zone. Go into a company that does something that's not just IT (that is, not a company that sells stuff for programmers). Human Resources, healthcare, geology, law, finance, advertising, any other domain other than IT. If I were re-doing my career, I'd try to get into any good situation with not only interesting tech, but interesting non-tech problems to solve.

Getting domain expertise outside of tech + strong tech fundamentals is huge, and a great way to build a really good company later on if that's your cup of tea, or be a great consultant or team member.

That way, you get both an interesting job, and very likely, very good financial rewards if you're good at what you're doing.

The worst mistake I've made was getting sucked into a dead-end path and staying because of the money. If I had gotten out early, I would have taken a financial hit early on, but would have continued an upward trajectory instead of plateauing (and working on stuff with non-marketable skills).

[arebop]

As somebody who started in software at a non-tech company, my first reaction to this was horror. On second thought, it seems like fine advice as long as your first job at the advertising firm is as a brand manager, or at a manufacturing firm you're in logistics, etc. I.e., if you are primarily an entrepreneur who might someday want to start a tech company, then by all means get some first-hand practical experience with fundamental problems of interest to your someday-customers.

My advice is to make sure wherever you are, you're working on the thing that senior management care most about. That's where you'll have the opportunity to work towards ambitious goals with the best mentors and exposure to real-world consequences.

[GFischer]

That's good advice :) .

Your point of working on what senior management cares most about is also good (but easier said than done !!!).

Workers in secondary/support activities (as IT is in most non-tech companies) don't get that many opportunities.