Don't forget - along with the perks come the risks. Not all that long ago a lot of people thought that working for IBM was a guaranteed gold watch and comfortable retirement. Then all of a sudden IBM had to run leaner and a lot of people got pink slips. IBM is still a major player in the software field, but it's surprising how good things can come and go. It's likely only a matter of time before Microsoft (and eventually Google) will have to have the make the same kinds of decisions.

Unfortunately, until the day that the west dumps capitalism and replaces it with socialist central planning (and I don't think that day is coming any time soon) we all have to live with the ups and downs of the market for our jobs.

As a general rule, I find it's best to realize that there are certain places where you get pools of employment for your field - find the one you like best and hang around. While you're there, work hard to make yourself valuable. It's not a perfect approach, but it works for me...

P.S. to the editors - "Google" is not in the spell check dictionary of the text editor for your site. I got a message that it should be changed to "Goggle". oops!