No joke at all. I personally know people that rode this last hiring bubble very stellar and got from analyst to manager in just 2 years, while raising their salary over 300% upwards because of strategic company hopping.
Some of them did get fire and are having trouble finding a job that paid as well as the last one.
It was a risk they were willing to take and I believe in some cases it paid off.
It does, if the plan included an option to step back to a lower paying job. Of it didn't, say because the life style continued to match the new salary and / or because people thought that career plan is going to work for ever, well then that plan can backfire hard.
Some of them did get fire and are having trouble finding a job that paid as well as the last one.
It was a risk they were willing to take and I believe in some cases it paid off.