In addition to many of the previous posters' comments, I'd add that the number of job offers per week went from a flood (10+ a week, sometimes double that) to z

In addition to many of the previous posters' comments, I'd add that the number of job offers per week went from a flood (10+ a week, sometimes double that) to zero during the bust. Acquaintances, former co-workers, and myself all took huge pay cuts and the jobs that were available weren't terribly exciting for a spell. Outsourcing and offshoring were the watchwords; in-house custom development was laughed at in many places. This boom is honestly (IMO) 1) more stable, as many companies actually do have business models and revenue and 2) more exciting (technology stacks are more interesting, tools have improved by leaps and bounds, very interesting companies are popping up.) My advice is to be constantly learning (both theory and practice); watch trends and become familiar with where they are going (if an exciting new technology comes along, learn some of the basics, even if that's just a "hello world" equivalent - I don't recommend doing a deep dive of anything truly new unless it really blows your mind or you think it's going to become lucrative); try to generalize your skillset a bit - there's a tradeoff here of course, as specialists will often get paid more while the getting is good - but it means you'll never lack for work (and may get stuck with some more drudgery since you're the jack-of-all-trades, master of none.) I'd also recommend trying to get multiple income streams going, whether that's from your own services business, freelancing, or just software-related consulting, so that if/when the crash comes, you've already got your own personal safety net.