For the last 12-plus years I’ve been working full time, I’ve worked both in SaaS as well as at digital marketing agencies. Although I’ve had many ups and downs during the course of my full-time working career, I’ve never stopped feeling grateful for all the good fortunes I’ve been privileged to have. I know that I have it better than probably 80-90 percent of the full-time working population given the opportunities I’ve been given, the perks and flexibility I’ve enjoyed, and the travel I’ve been lucky to have done to various parts of this country, not to mention how I’ve been paid. But even within our moments of gratitude, we also need to acknowledge what is right and wrong within our bubbles and identify what needs progress and why. I think that’s something that a lot of people fail to do for various reasons: they are scared to deviate from the status quo and “stir up trouble,” as that may put their own jobs and positions in jeopardy, they don’t want to create controversy, particularly because that disturbs their own comforts they get to enjoy, and well, they’re just lazy and don’t want to do anything that will require any proactivity on their part. It could also be a combination of all the above.

During my time working in the agency world, I realized how easy it was to get too comfortable with everything from the status quo, mediocrity, substituting activity for achievement (oh, this one is a HUGE theme across work in general and is not just about the agency world, though given that agencies make their money based on a percentage of spend from brands, this plays quite prominently here), and just doing your day to day, literally paper pushing.

But what has also happened is that a friend of mine who has remained in the agency world (and is still at the same agency I left) has repeatedly told me how toxic and awful the tech industry is once I rejoined it in 2013 because of the rampant politics, sexism, and racism that has gotten the spotlight due to reports from major tech companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon, and the like. He’s insinuated to me that he doesn’t think I should work in tech anymore and that my desire and decision to leave was misguided. My general feeling about this is that it is true that the tech industry is not perfect; it is part of the working world, isn’t it, just a specific sector, so it will never be immune from the issues that our society or world faces. Yes, the tech industry wears a mask of being more progressive, promoting diversity and inclusion efforts internally, and taking care of its employees more than the average (read: crappy, cut-throat, bare-bones) American company through its offerings of attractive perks that range from “unlimited PTO” (I will deconstruct this myth/recruiter selling tactic in a later post), free snacks, daily lunches, reimbursement of all commuter costs, 100% employer-covered medical/dental/vision premiums, fitness/gym/massage reimbursements, to even fertility and egg freezing benefits, but because they do actually go above and beyond with these types of perks on average vs. other industries, that is enough to make someone want to jump over from another industry into tech. Why? Because the relationship you have with your employer is transactional, as I learned pretty much the very first time I got laid off in 2009. You offer your expertise and services to your employer in exchange for a salary and whatever benefits they are willing to offer. There is nothing more to this relationship, so you should not think anything more of it… because we know, for sure, they certainly will not. They will not hesitate to cut you when they no longer think they need you (whether that’s because you actually are under performing or, in most cases, because certain key people may not like you. Hello, politics). Because of this cold, blunt fact, why should we, as potential employees, not want to take advantage of every potential benefit and perk an employer is willing to give us and milk it for as much and as long as possible? We’re only maximizing our own gains, and if we do not think of ourselves first, it is guaranteed that no one else ever will — and certainly not your employer – past, current, or future. Therefore, with that said, this is why I strongly believe that unless you are working for yourself and can call all the shots, the best industry to be working in to maximize the “you” benefit is in tech. Just don’t work at one of those loser, backwards tech companies that offers zero of the attractive benefits noted above — otherwise, why are you even working in tech?! Do you think you are going to change the world? Don’t be that naive and take care of yourself — knowing that no one else will.