As the title. I'm in the exact age bracket that this is talking about, and still don't really understand what a "career" is.
I've been lucky enough to at least have had a job since the mid 90s, but it's always been that: a series of jobs.
I've always been in the position where it was too risky rocking the boat by trying to jump ship. Paying mortgage for parents' home, married with kids, etc.
Pay raises have pretty much always been science fiction (in the UK, and now Japan), and from what I can tell, "promotion" is either just a change in job title, or else is a result of the CEO saying something.
And what are these benefit things? The last company had a programme for selling it's own stock to employees, and the current one's been taken over by a private equity company with an offer to "invest" in the company; where the blazes do they think that money's supposed to come from, because they already know that we've not had pay reviews for ... well, there wasn't ever one.
Still, at least I've got a job. For now :-)