what i've found working in tech in financial institutions are just more up front and "ruthless" with the reality that you aren't going to have a cushy 10-year t

what i've found working in tech in financial institutions are just more up front and "ruthless" with the reality that you aren't going to have a cushy 10-year type "career" where your output ebbs and flows between, say, 0-20% (new kid, divorce) or 80-100% (new title, new project). obviously one has to be OK with that coming in, but it was made abundantly clear to me that it's not a lifestyle gig. getting laid off in a finance job typically comes with severance and an understanding that it's not your fault, necessarily, just that the project didn't meet expectations, or the bank had a bad quarter, or whatever else. it was made clear up front that in exchange, you get to work on very interesting stuff, have long (9hour M-F) but reasonable and well-planned days (no on-call stuff typically), and an understanding that you share in the profits of the institution (typically via bonuses instead of equity a la google at one point), so have incentive to keep working hard. when compared to startup model that i read about on here a lot (work hella hard then get shafted by equity games), it's honestly refreshing to just get the bottom line up front vs. game playing, loyalty/honor manipulation to work uncompensated, etc. when compared to what i consider a "normal" office job, where you probably work about 4 solidly productive hours per day over the life of your career, it's just more honest about the value of your labor and that it's sort of ridiculous that we have this charade that knowledge workers are consistently doing 8 hours of deep knowledge work every day they are in front of their computer.