Ask HN: 'Escaping' Senior Software Developer | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: 'Escaping' Senior Software Developer

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Hello HN, I come to you with a question. I seem to have hit a roadblock in my career. I'm currently in the top salary range for a senior software developer in my region, and unless I do something, I'm looking at being an engineer for the forseeable future.

That is not something I want, as I want to move away from being an employee, and more towards an executive or owner role. I'm looking to hear about the experiences about people who made that transition. I've been learning a lot about business and finance, and I've moved away from large corporations (where developers are a commodity) to smaller one with more responsibility, but I'd like to hear what other people did, thanks.

It's all about generating business value. If you can do that, you can do consulting or direct contracting. I'd contracted off and on in the past but a couple of years ago I started working for myself as a consultant with 2-3 clients. It's not easy; when you work for yourself, your boss can be a jerk. The pressure may keep you awake at night. It's not for everyone.

You are absolutely right that you want to avoid the "commodity programmer" part of the labor spectrum. Even if you are very good, company pay structures just won't let them pay $300K an year to a "engineer" when they pay their other senior engineers $100K. As an outside contractor/consultant they can and will. You want to be in a position where you can do things for your clients that they just can't do for themselves. For me, it's usually building the software half of a product or a major money making feature.

I have not cracked the "getting new business" part of the equation so I can't help you there. I get my clients through word of mouth or previous business relationships ("do you need any help?") which more or less boils down to luck since I don't really advertise.

When I read advice like this, I think "Well, that's easy for him to say, he's probably brilliant". I can tell you that I am emphatically not brilliant but I have made a lot of mistakes over many years of programming.

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