My girlfriend once asked me why I don't use a password manager like LastPass. A week later she got locked out of her LastPass account because she was inadvertently using an enterprise account that one of her clients forced her to use while on a project. And even though she was paying for her own premium LastPass subscription, the support experience had was terrible. Issue was resolved when the client was able to unlock the account for her, but it was a pain because it was during the holidays. I would avoid a password management software because of her experience.
I live in downtown Chicago. I'm one block away from Trader Joe's and Osco Jewel. Cost of living in downtown Chicago is cheaper than NYC/SF and maybe even LA.
Within 20 minutes of walking, I can get to two separate Targets, Whole Foods and even a Home Depot.
Simply because you're not the clientele, doesn't mean this is a bad idea. The CTA Blue Line is uncomfortable during rush hour traffic while carrying your luggage. This is probably geared towards tourist/Loop workers who would have paid for a $50-80 Uber/Taxi ride anyways.
I know I have a lot to learn. I am not a programmer for my job role. I program has a hobby. I run the operations side: support, deployments, and business analyst type work. I am not oblivious to the problems because I see all the problems when I am facing the product side of the business.
I would agree with what the author has said. That being said, I believe it takes a certain individual to grow inside a bank (because I'm one of them) and I think it is different between teams. If you are not smart (but hardworking and willing to learn), you will thrive inside a bank.
I have a liberal arts major at a large-public university and have a minor in computer science. My offer at a large bank was the best offer I got and I got placed in an operation/support role. I have been in my current role for over two years and this is my first "real job" outside of college.
Even though it is not Google/Microsoft/Amazon, I am extremely happy in the position I am in. The first two years were difficult and it is not the type of role I want to do for the rest of my life, but working at the bank had some benefits. I get paid overtime hours and get to work remotely whenever I want. If I had a family or significant other I would be miserable. Recently there has been a mass exodus and layoffs in our team (due to a "location strategy"). I am able to do the work that used to take 4-5 people and there is only one other person in the Western Hemisphere that does my job.
I support what the bank calls a "critical application". There's very high probability that your money has moved through this application. There has been a lot of work for me to do and have been given flexibility because I work hard and get the job done. I get paid overtime (100 hours of overtime this past month). Even though I am happy at the moment, I know my current role is unsustainable and I intend on moving to another team within the bank or externally (at the end of the year where I will probably lose my overtime eligibility).
Our company provides services for self-learning (which usually costs hundreds of dollars a year) and bi-annual hackathons which gives me an outlet for actually programming. A project I worked on in one of these hackathons got patented recently. I live in a major US city which has two major hackerspaces and a plethora of jobs and career networking events/MeetUps. Since I am doing so much overtime, I make more than my salary capped associates and application developers (who are my age) and my mortgage will be paid off by the end of this year. I think my next career move will be in application development with one of the many teams I support at the moment or move into consulting.
I use Instacart because I don't own a car and convenience. When I'm making $60 an hour overtime during the weekend for a 12-14 hour shift, you bet I'm going to be using Instacart for a nominal 10% markup for groceries from Costco.