Comment by only_throwing

Thanks for your answer. I partially agree. I was born and raised in a small town, where jobs were few, but there was this BigTech office. I started there as an intern, became a full time employee and stayed for around 2 years. I left it to work at a cooler project with better pay, but it was a 3h drive from/to my place - moving wasn't an option because I was taking care of my parents. I left after 1y due to the commuting time, and joined a startup as one of the first hires - stayed 2y there but investors pulled the plug, the business wasn't growing fast enough. So out of a job I decided to move to a bigger city and got a good job, was promoted to lead a small team after 1y and really liked it. After 2y there a colleague also new to the city offered me a position at another BigCo paying 2x and leading a bigger team, so I accepted. Turns out the company had a horrible culture and I got burnout, depression and anxiety attacks, and I still have nightmares of execs yelling shit at me. Finally, I left so here I am, 6th company, it's going well and I got a raise after my first year. That's just to say I may have made junior mistakes and then some bad life decisions but it doesn't mean I or people with similar stories don't have soft or managerial skills. Technical skills that are only obtained after multiple years chewing the same product are another thing, though.