I mentor college students through a local group. I agree that this reads exactly like something they pick up from spending too much time on cynical subreddits w

I mentor college students through a local group. I agree that this reads exactly like something they pick up from spending too much time on cynical subreddits where people gather to complain. I frequently have to remind them that they shouldn't get career advice from online forums dedicated to venting and complaining. > Offhand, I can't think of too many people (myself included) who are a) very happy in their jobs and b) planned very diligently to get to that exact space. > Mostly the opposite, "A lot of random stuff happened, I followed through on some stuff that felt right at the time, and just kind of did that over and over." IMO, that's because most of the people who plan career paths diligently only look at one metric: "TC" (total compensation). They may say they value autonomy, growth, good teammates or any other number of things, but when it comes down to offer time most young people will reliably pick the highest offer, no matter what. The more serendipitous career paths involve a lot of networking, identifying who you like working with and what you like working on, reputation building, and eventually flowing into a great position within your network. The pay may come slightly later, but it's a much happier path.