"Too good" to be true is a bit of a stretch, because it wasn't all good. The professions in that day were ethnically exclusive, connections driven, and the everyday work was generally pretty dull. Also, getting fired seriously fucked up your life and reputation (rather than being the mild annoyance it is today, for a skilled software engineer) and so offices tended to be a lot more authoritarian. Watch Mad Men to get a sense of it. Sticking around the office till 6:30 meant you were a hard worker, but it wasn't all pleasant, and for a lot of people who, by all rights, would deserve the chance to get in, couldn't.
However, the professions did expect people to dedicate half their time to off-meter work, and were more reasonable about allowing people to do that and have 40-50 hour work weeks. That aspect of it is true. This doesn't mean that you could work only 20 hours per week if you decided off-meter work wasn't your thing. It does mean that you had the autonomy of an actual professional.
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I second this. Sounds like it might be a bit too good to be true.
"Too good" to be true is a bit of a stretch, because it wasn't all good. The professions in that day were ethnically exclusive, connections driven, and the everyday work was generally pretty dull. Also, getting fired seriously fucked up your life and reputation (rather than being the mild annoyance it is today, for a skilled software engineer) and so offices tended to be a lot more authoritarian. Watch Mad Men to get a sense of it. Sticking around the office till 6:30 meant you were a hard worker, but it wasn't all pleasant, and for a lot of people who, by all rights, would deserve the chance to get in, couldn't.
However, the professions did expect people to dedicate half their time to off-meter work, and were more reasonable about allowing people to do that and have 40-50 hour work weeks. That aspect of it is true. This doesn't mean that you could work only 20 hours per week if you decided off-meter work wasn't your thing. It does mean that you had the autonomy of an actual professional.