I've been at the same company for close to 20 years, and didn't even hop around within the company... just a steady path up. I can still relate to a lot of this. The company used to not really have any job hoppers, people with 10-30 years was the norm, the people with less than 5 were the weird ones. Now, that's flipped, and I see that Game of Thrones stuff playing out and I have no respect for these people and it's hurt my motivation to do anything. We are told to "modernize", by someone who parachutes in from some other company, and will be gone in 3 years. They have no skin in the game. They just make a mess of everything we built over 2 decades, then leave us holding the bag. When you talk about engineers being resistant to change, that's where the resistance comes from. I used to jump in with both feet when something new came along, because I thought those changes were worth it. When it becomes change for the sake of change, and we are building the same stupid thing 4 times on 4 different platforms, because leadership keeps changing and wants to put their own stamp on things... I can't be bothered anymore. They are doing these things because they feel it is in their best interest, to get their next promotion, not because it's in the best interest of the business. All the re-orgs due to all this change also prevents that Seal Team 6-like synergy within the team. Just when a team starts coming together to function, they shuffle us up again and we're back to square 1 trying to build trust in a new team and understand what everyone can do. I came in as a direct hire. There were some good years in there, but the last 5 years or so has felt like a never-ending march up a mountain covered in oil. A direct hire alone won't save you. The company needs to be good, with sane leaders who aren't chasing the latest buzz words they read about in some industry publication.