Don't believe anything management tells you about raises or promotions. They always over-promise and under-deliver. Count on needing to switch jobs to get more

Don't believe anything management tells you about raises or promotions. They always over-promise and under-deliver. Count on needing to switch jobs to get more money. In that same vein, don't believe any crap that the bosses say about your company being "family". It's pure manipulation. The company has no loyalty to you. Don't put in overtime to meet arbitrary deadlines. If the production system is broken, sure, fix it. But if someone wants you to lose your weekend so that the project can meet any arbitrary deadline, forget it. "We'll do X later" means "We'll do X never". There's always talk of having more time after the immediate priority is taken care of, but there never is any slack time after delivering a project. Never talk to your manager about spending time dedicated to refactor code. They'll always say no or say you can do it later. As mentioned before, later means never. Refactor as you go and don't talk about it with management. This may all sound rather cynical, but this is what I've learned over my nearly 20 years in the industry. That said, I have always had good relationships with my managers... I have just learned what works and what doesn't.