In my experience, this graph looks similar if you get hired at the first peak, but the desert of despair doesn't dip as low as long as you have some form of men

In my experience, this graph looks similar if you get hired at the first peak, but the desert of despair doesn't dip as low as long as you have some form of mentor or reviewer for your code. You can, of course, get hired to a bad job and the desert will dip further down (and your risk of leaving the industry increases).