I used to be a developer, but I never became am excellent one, because I was interested in so many aspects, including (dev)ops, qa, product management, and most importantly the business side of things. At some point someone else (which is a bit embarrassing in hindsight) realized I might have what it takes to be a CTO, and I was brave enough to do that step.<p>Now since about four years, I'm a freelance interim CTO and help companies that struggle inside and around the product development department.
I realized at some point that 'coding for answers' was more interesting to me than applications. That discovery spurred a shift into analytics in the financial sector, followed by a post-crisis stint in government service. In the latter role sql and python were secret weapons.<p>I now analyze public policy for hedge funds.
I'm getting pretty close to pulling the pin and retiring. I won't really need the money but will probably do a bit of consultancy now and then. Since 2003 I've been writing a memoir on living in Thailand - I hope one day to actually get around to finishing it! :D<p>A friend of mine recently bailed out of software and is now a qualified mountain leader.
VP of Customer Analytics at a financial institution.<p>I was a decent software engineer to boot but never really got into the super technical side of things. I enjoyed working with people and speaking to them about how technology can help solve their problems - hence, the role switch.<p>To scratch my itch, I do a bit of dev/machine learning work.