Good evening and welcome back to Nighty Night with Robbie a Chaudhary. Bedtime stories to keep you awake.

I'm DJ Lee Bell, the shows producer. Tonight's tale teaches us. Just because technology may be smart, it doesn't mean it's not evil.

Please enjoy the assistant.

They call it the golden handcuffs. Now, back in the day, that used to mean good healthcare and a pension. But now these are perks like everyday stuff to keep you tied down.

You know what I mean? Free beer, napods, and office laundry and gyms. All kind of little extras that keep you happy while you're working and then disappear the moment you stop.

Tech companies are especially big on these. But the one that won me over to Cupal, that was the move in ready apartment they offered as part of my relocation package.

Not that I would have turned down anybody trying to hire me. I spent the previous seven years grinding my way through a software engineering program while working three or four part-time jobs for a minimum wage and taking care of my baby.

Look, don't get me wrong. I did have some help. My mom and dad were always happy to watch Anthony, my son, whenever I was at work or school.

But when I call it a grind, I do mean grind, wearing away at my sleep, my body, my personality, grinding down all my edges until I could slip through the machine with no resistance.

I'm guessing that's what it's like running one of those marathons where your nipples bleed and you shit yourself. But instead, it stretched across seven years.

Well, kept me going though, was knowing there was another side to come out, a light at the end of the tunnel. My life until then had been all tunnel.

Long, long tunnel. Too dark to see the walls, but we're often cramped enough to know they were there.

A typical story from my part of the world, beautiful Buffalo, New York, shit schooling, go nowhere city, knocked up senior year of high school for my first time with my long-time boyfriend, the same boyfriend who died in a car wreck on I-90.

Nothing special. But when I first held my son and I saw all the wonder and love and join his innocent eyes, I knew I had to do everything in my power to make a life for him that wasn't like mine, one big trap.

I heard working on computers paid well, so I got myself through a coding bootcamp to a SUNY program and then finally the damn degree.

But even then, it was months before I got a single interview.

There are a lot of tech companies out there with lots of openings, but without a big name already on my resume, nobody wanted to take a chance on me.

But then, I got lucky, and the biggest name and tech decided I might be just good enough for a full-time position.

It took three rounds of interviews, a trip out to their offices in California, three tests, one for personality, another for coding, and a third for culture fit, and then one full, unpaid practice day.

But after all that, and the marathon years before it with my bleeding nipples, I was finally presented with a holy grail of the tech world, an offer from Cupid.

I was excited, obviously, and the offer was great. No fine print, no catch, great health insurance, generous PTO, for all one came matching, and just about every other perk in the book.

Plus, most importantly, my own move in ready apartment, and not just any apartment, but a brand new ultra high end smart apartment, which was a beautiful 10 minute walk away from the Cupid campus.

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