Steve is right. There is more in life than our career. In IT, we do our best, work overtime and endure stress. No matter how much extra effort you put in, your company can only provide limited percent of annual increment, which is not much difference from an average worker. So, what's the point of putting all your life into building your career and spending so little time with our family and letting go of our stress on my family members (sometimes when there is much stress at work).

I very much agree that there are ups and downs and I usually look for other job opportunities when it's down and I end up finding myself job hopping.

Going into a new company isn't going to solve anything as I'll feel down again and look for other opportunities. Now, I'm focusing on building up soft skills, which I think is equally important as technical skills if you want to move up the ladder, instead of job hopping, which makes it difficult move up into seniority if you keep changing jobs. Unless of course, after your have significantly improved your soft skills, you may be offered a higher position at your company or another company.

In conclusion, I think we should work averagely, without over doing it, and at the same time build on soft skills and love our family.