I don't think your parent was trying to say that contracts existing are unusual. Just that being able to negotiate a contract that has such provisions and conti

I don't think your parent was trying to say that contracts existing are unusual. Just that being able to negotiate a contract that has such provisions and contingencies as you said you'd want to negotiate for are extremely unusual outside of executive positions. The truth probably lies somewhere in between but I do agree that it's not a common thing for your garden variety software developer to be able to negotiate such a thing with a corporation like Oracle. If you're the expert in relational algebra optimization, sure. If you're just another developer. Meh, I don't see it.