At my last gig I was paid ~30% less than the person I worked with on the project. They joined a bit earlier and negotiated a better deal, that's all. All this

At my last gig I was paid ~30% less than the person I worked with on the project. They joined a bit earlier and negotiated a better deal, that's all. All this talk about being promoted and receiving pay raises is funny to me. Never in my work history I was just 'promoted'. One climbs up by looking for new and better job. Same goes to pay. Where is this magical land where men climb up by being men? I'd love to experience that! Also, coding is not some magical job. For most people I know the line between work/free time barely exist. People that are good 1) code all day at work and then 2) go home and code some more at home. 1 and 2 may be unrelated but only on the surface. By coding at home they improve their skills and do better at work. But there's a price to pay. Other hobbies/interests have to be sacrificed. So is social life. All articles of this kind make it sound like coding is some sort of magical job that's easy and well paid and has no downsides. My life experience is that finding a good programming job is incredibly hard and only very few people I know are happy with theirs. More often than not it's just daily grind.