The converse of that is that you CAN stay up to date on your own time and do tech projects when things come out/make open source contributions, etc. (dependent

The converse of that is that you CAN stay up to date on your own time and do tech projects when things come out/make open source contributions, etc. (dependent on specialty, of course). It's also decently easy to freelance or pick up side projects, whereas some other career fields it's very much a 'you're in or you're out' thing. Some other fields are much stricter in terms of what they'll accept for experience and/or a valid career path. Lawyers, doctors, etc. Academia's pretty punishing as well: Taking a break basically can mean adjunct hell for life depending on the discipline.