I've worked for a number of large companies, and it doesn't have to be like this. It absolutely can be like this, but it depends what you want. You can plough y

I've worked for a number of large companies, and it doesn't have to be like this. It absolutely can be like this, but it depends what you want. You can plough your own furrow and be nicely rewarded for it and be in a very secure situation. What is described in this article is the sort of behaviour that'll get you through 1-2 years, but fairly quickly people will spot what kind of person you are. This post sort of implicitly views management as NPCs, they're not. They have their own things going on, but they do pick up on things eventually and it gets difficult to change their mind, it's pretty hard to shake that reputation so you'd better move on quick. You can do something similar - build more long term reputation, influence across teams etc. and that'll pay off in the longer term. Or you can say "I'm going to do it my way" and put your priorities first, work on what you think is valuable, and if you really succeed generally you will be recognised - these hacks are easy ways to advance, not the only way. All of these are different games you can play at Big Corp. But you don't have to play them, and you can choose your own strategy, but the basline is high pay, low risk, and you can always walk away with 0 guilt, and that's not a terrible place to be.