content: I've been doing IT work since the 80's.  You hit a lot of the point I make at least monthly, but the big one is even more simple.  In the 80's and 90's companies realized that hiring a person and building his talents, AND KEEPING HIM, was cheaper than hiring and training every few years.  Now, they have offloaded all the so called 'perks' onto the employees and know that they can hire a desperate kid right out of tech school for $15 an hour and hire a contractor to do the serious stuff when it all blows up.  This is cheaper month to month, but not long term. My first job they worked me like a dog, but they paid for my certs and training, demanded we all have down time and at least once a year let us work in a new tech into the business as a way to push tech and IT forward.  We were vital in training the execs and managers in using everything from cell phones to excel to increase productivity and utilizing the tech we had/wanted into the business.  IT was a critical partner in every department; my boss at the time was on the budgeting committee and worked to use tech to save money and make the employees we had more productive and more valuable.  I worked there 10 years until a whole new management team came in after a merger and cut off my teams training budget before they even met us.  I took the members of the team worth keeping to a new company who understood what a good IT department is worth. I'm at the point where I do not do the work any more.  Management does that to you.  Now I look for people who deserve that foot in the door, those kids who will work, learn and grow, and then leave when the company lets the talent go because they need to save $10 this month to meet metrics.  It is terribly angry to see companies, both mine and my wife's as an example, not put the investment into long term goals, or into growing their work force like they used to. Workers are disposable now.  You kids coming out of college, should think about what that means.  Changing companies every 3-5 years to get a raise will be the norm.  Make friends, don't piss people off, remember that high level IT is a closed knit group who all know and google each other.  Save to get your certs and keep them current.  For the most part if you go into IT now, you are on your own for most of this stuff.