[thedriver]

On the other hand, another way to have more financial security is to save and invest money. That way you have time to figure out something new if your current job ends for whatever reason. If you get paid relatively well, like many tech workers do, it's not that hard to save a decent amount of money. The lifestyle creep just gets most people.

[throwboatyface]

Even with considerable savings, it's easy to get "I can take a break" money, but it's very hard to get "fuck you" money. With the stigma against changing jobs and taking breaks in the IT industry, there's other pressures to stay at shitty employers and stay burnt out because you're risking your future employability.

Personally I'm looking to go part-time and have better work life balance because at most places 50% of your time is spent on bullshit anyways.

[xur17]

> With the stigma against changing jobs and taking breaks in the IT industry

Is there a stigma again either of these? In my experience, the stigma against changing jobs is really only if you change jobs a LOT, to the point where the employer is worried your employment won't be worth the investment.

And I've taken breaks between jobs with no problems + don't really see it as an issue when I see it on resume in most cases.

[neilv]

> With the stigma against changing jobs and taking breaks in the IT industry,

Where is the stigma against changing jobs? From everything I've seen, job-hopping every 18 months seems to be the default in the last couple decades, at least for software developers. I personally think that's suboptimal duration for everything except maximizing TC (costing the company institutional knowledge, and costing the employee learning from seeing both cause and effect in lifecycles), but I'm pretty sure I'm in the minority on that.

Maybe VC throwing the brakes on growth theatre will mean that startups will return to business fundamentals, and rethink what engineering practices work for that.

There has long been a stigma in tech hiring against candidate not currently employed. Maybe partly due to the job-hopping convention ("if you're not doing that, you must be stupid"), but I think this particular stigma predated techbros, for a variety of reasons.

(Though, noteworthy contrary data point: before leaving one place, I did ask a recruiter at my favorite FAANG, who assured me that their process doesn't penalize candidates for not currently being employed. They answered as if that was an FAQ and the company had a policy about that. At least regarding whether an offer is made, at that particular company; I imagine that could affect compensation package.)

Maybe the recent rash of big tech layoffs relaxes that particular stigma for everyone in tech.

[SergeAx]

As a hiring manager, I I only welcome taking breaks between jobs. This way I can be sure the new employee will come onboard full of energy and salf-motivated.

[boring_twenties]

What stigma is there against taking breaks? I have long gaps between every single job on my resume, it's never been an issue.

[yodsanklai]

> The lifestyle creep just gets most people.

I changed industry a few years ago and as a result had a big income increase. I made a point of not changing my lifestyle because I know it won't last forever.

Unfortunately, it's quite difficult to commit to it. Not that I live a particularly wealthy lifestyle, but it's hard to renounce to the extra little comfort that money can get you. Little by little, you get used spending a bit more money.

Also, when you live in a very expensive city like NYC, simply living not too far from work in a decent appartement takes a big part of your paycheck.

[pilom]

The key to avoiding lifestyle creep is "pay yourself first". Set up automatic deductions to automatically pull money from your paycheck before it ever gets to your bank account. In the US, you can put $20k per year into a 401k account and another $6k into an IRA account tax free.

[sokoloff]

> you can put $20k per year into a 401k account and another $6k into an IRA account tax free.

Only if your income is relatively low (for US tech employees).

https://www.fool.com/retirement/plans/401k/contribute-to-401...

[bluedino]

> I changed industry a few years ago and as a result had a big income increase. I made a point of not changing my lifestyle because I know it won't last forever.

Same here. Making almost double, still in the same house and car, just saving money and paying down on the house.

[prewett]

There’s also a difference in how old you are and if you have a family. When you have four years of junior-level savings, the prospect of having no income is very different than when you have twenty years of savings, with ten of those at senior levels. Likewise if you are single, expenses are very different than a family of four.

[yardie]

> The lifestyle creep just gets most people.

A lot of people who were doing okay before find themselves underwater budgetwise because of inflation.

Tech is one of the few industries where you get paid more by getting paid more. If you're an engineer making $180k you can demand a pay raise or threaten to walk. Knowing you'll land somewhere in a few weeks or use savings for the next 6-12 months. Someone making $60k, for example, could never be that bold.