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Comment by throwawayarnty | Hacker News Reader

It’s great but what if the small company gets outcompeted by a competitor? Or management changes and environment deteriorates? You lose your steady salary, and if you don’t push hard to achieve then when you try to look for new jobs you find you are outcompeted or your skills outdated.

If might sound dumb to work hard to achieve but those people at the top have very little trouble finding jobs, ie they are not as dependent on a specific company to make a living.

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What if the big company decides that mass layoffs are happening, or cancels your project? What if investors lose confidence and my division is folded into another and I'm stuck competing with another person with the same qualifications as me for one role?

> you don’t push hard to achieve then when you try to look for new jobs you find you are outcompeted or your skills outdated.

Who said I don't work hard, or that my skills are outdated? I can work hard and keep up to date without chasing the next step and forgetting about what I already have. It doesn't really matter what jobs there are in the future if I get too burned out on my current job, for example.

>Who said I don't work hard

You're the businessman after succeeding with his plan, not the fisherman

They're both the same. The fisherman needs to work hard enough to provide and live the life he wants, with whatever contingency he's comfortable with.

The businessman does too.

If one and only one company is the be-all and end-all of your career, you're doing it wrong. F*'em, go get another job. Nobody owes us a living. It's up to us to be worth hiring.

Job security isn't knowing your particular job is secure, it's knowing you could get another job at any moment, that's job security.

I've had my employer essentially go bust twice, and left another company that was in dire straits but managed to keep going. It's all been fine, of course you need to keep your skills up to date but the idea that one employer going to the will is the end of my career is just daft. No.

Having said that I have had a close friend get his career badly derailed by health problems. That really sucked, but after some tough years he's back rebuilding his career and loving it. He's in the film and TV production industry and just loves what he does.

I think the moral is, do what you love and be good at it. I honestly have no idea what I'd do if I wasn't in IT, but I love the tech and I'm decently well paid, so it's all good. Not everyone is so lucky, for sure.

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