I would change this a little. From: "I think one of the first things I learned when I started out is no job is for life." To: "If you want a job for life you have to target a company that can provide a job for life." If you are looking for a job for life you need to choose your employer very carefully and work to make it a job for life. The price you pay to do that might not be worth it.

I had a job for life. I had a 29.7 year track of continuous vested employment (really the same division of the same company even if it did change names). To do that I avoided 7 layoffs, moved 4 times, twice coast to coast. Endured four rounds of mergers/acquisitions/restructuring. I reinvented myself four times starting in production/operations, moving to design, moving to R&D and finally being promoted to middle management before I volunteered to be laid-off with a less than golden parachute but a decent severance package.

I think if you get a job at a Fortune 500 company and work at keeping that job you could have a job for life.

TEK