Many years ago when I was fresh out of college I was working in the retail business and I got offered a management job within the company and the union rep for store employees warned me I shouldn’t take the job because “the union can’t protect you anymore.”

Thankfully I didn’t listen to this terrible advance. Took the management job and then a regional managers job 5 years after that and had more than tripled my salary within 5 years. I then started a business based on the contacts I had acquired being in management and having more responsibility. I owned and ran that business for over 15 years before selling it two years ago.