The 1990s were amazing. Suddenly all these formerly unemployable or underemployed Gen X slackers were the only ones who could feed the startups’ need for employees comfortable with the tech. I went right from a journalism career and liberal arts grad degree into project management and within a few years was a CTO for a small startup. Forget the actual techies with CS degrees: artists, writers, actors, really any Gen X creative types who knew how to get online and could do basic HTML and Photoshop were making upper-middle-class salaries without all the standard corporate BS and were regularly turning away job offers.
Then the bubble burst in April of 2000, followed in turn by Prince Bush and then 9/11 and it was all over. But a lot of Xers emerged with solid CV entries that got them long-term tech jobs, and some of the lucky ones came away with enough money from sales of options or equity that they could continue to maintain a middle-class lifestyle just as it was being pushed out of reach for most Americans.
