I agree, but it's important to frame the issue. The reality is being a software developer is a pretty sought-after job. Yes, companies will do what they can t

I agree, but it's important to frame the issue. The reality is being a software developer is a pretty sought-after job. Yes, companies will do what they can to take advantage of any employee, but it's not like we're coal miners here. When you put in time outside of work to keep your skills up to date that is investing in yourself, not the company. But is it required to put in extra hours to stay competitive? All else being equal, of course it's a competitive advantage. Where that breaks down is that programming productivity is hard to measure and far from fungible. The scary truth is that the nature of the job you do might have more impact on your skill set progression than whatever you do in your spare time. If you are stuck maintaining some baroque legacy system then you might be developing domain knowledge that is useless anywhere else. Conversely, if you are directly interacting with customers, or collaborating with smart, experienced developers on hard problems, or addressing business problems from first principles, then your learning might be accelerated. In the end, developer jobs are definitely a marketplace, but not a commodity marketplace. There are many paths to success. For young developers I would definitely advocate putting in all the time you can simply because there is a big initial hump to get over before it even becomes apparent whether you have any potential or not. But once you are a competent developer, then domain knowledge and soft skills bring far more competitive advantage than learning the latest whiz-bang framework.