I experienced the fallout of the dot com bubble burst, graduating from University in 2003 and interning in college. I was a front office developer analyst at l

I experienced the fallout of the dot com bubble burst, graduating from University in 2003 and interning in college. I was a front office developer analyst at leading buy-side finance company. One memory that really stuck was elsewhere in tech, if you were in an infrastructure related role, full time employees were receiving letters saying: "The company is downsizing. Your position is one that is scheduled for strategic reassignment to an offshore consultancy (TCS). Following this transition, your position in the company will no longer be required. If you stay with the firm and help train your replacement, you will receive X months severance. Thank you for your cooperation." The other tech teams had to work with offshore consultants while doing work that managers hadn't figured out how to outsource. IT management essentially had a mandate to outsource anything possible and lower costs. Creating value for business was secondary. Managerialism sucked all of the life out tech. Being a programmer wasn't enough. You had to solve business problems. This turned out to be very useful advice. I saw all around me the consequences of not doing so. So, I learned programming during the day (mostly sql, relational db modeling, scripting and reporting) and unfamiliar finance and business concepts on my own during nights and weekends. This helped me advance myself into greater challenges and varied terrain. I'm no longer in finance but got a lot out of the experience. I did the best I could with the resources available and without compromising my integrity just to survive at someone else's peril. I learned that managerialism can bring new product development and growth to a complete halt. Technology solutionism over promises and under delivers. Business cycles and availability of credit determine who gets their moment of power and influence. No role is guaranteed. Keep hustling, people. Complacency and convenience may alleviate stress, but if you are not growing personally or professionally, you may struggle worse during hard times. Never stop developing yourself.