[brudgers]

With any firing, there is the official reason and the real reason. Short of gross misconduct on the part of the employee, they are often quite different.

From your description, there is a good chance that your firing was at least in part due to the organizational and staffing practices at the company (your technical skills may have played some role - but are unlikely to have been the sole reason and may not have even been the primary reason). High turnover is often symptomatic of incompetence in the hiring process, poor management techniques or a poor workplace environment.

On the flip side, corporations will often be concerned with employees who "are just passing through." There's a lot of risk potential in employing a person who is actively seeking another job - particularly if they appear to be dissatisfied and use the term "hacker" and has high level access to financial software.

As for your professional self-esteem, that's all in your head not in the external world. Some things just have to be learned the hard way, and the ability to recognize which sort of organizations are a good fit - and which sorts are not - can be one of those. Certain personality types survive in corporations and banks, and other types don't. Neither group has a monopoly on technical skill or personal character.

Only you can choose to cowboy up and pursue your long term goals, which are ambitious, or not.

Good luck.

[QuoVadis7]

Great answer, thanks!

I suspected some of this stuff, and it's nice to know that other people also see that and it's not just me being paranoid.