Those HN readers who have been software engineers for multiple decades, still enjoy the work and decided the management track is not for them, how and where do you actually look for new roles if and when the time comes to move on?<p>I don't necessarily want to work for one of the FAANGs, even though they do seem to occasionally look for this type of engineer. This is partially due to location, plus I've done the megacorp thing and am not a huge fan. While I get fairly regular inquiries from recruiters, those don't seem to be roles that are a good match for my experience and skillset. A lot of them seem to equate "senior developer" with ~5-8 years experience and can't get their head around someone who's in his third decade as a professional developer.<p>Is there a job board for grizzled software veterans out there somewhere that I don't know about, or is it 100% network at this point?
You need to think about the following to really define what you are looking for:<p>- What percentage of time do you want to spend coding vs doing other things like helping/guiding other devs, project management etc. 80 20 ? 60 40 ?<p>- Are you willing to come in to a team/company and use what they have versus redoing everything ? Do you have a preference for language/stack ? If there is a team that does PHP, would you be interested or only want to work in <latest_hottest_language> ?<p>- How do you expect to grow further as an Individual Contributor ? What could you do to make yourself more valuable to the company/team every 12 months ? I ask because you want to grow further and you have to define what that is exactly. One of the reasons senior devs start managing because that is easier to measure in terms of growth and impact. If you are a great developer, how can you keep justifying growth (salary etc) every year ? What should be metrics for it ?
What's not clear to me from your text: what kind of role <i>are</i> you looking for? I.e. what are you missing from the "senior developer" roles?
I know one thing that if people in this thread write books, I'll buy a copy. Contact info is in the profile for when it's out.<p>All the best to you all,<p>Just an idea you probably have thought about... Have you considered opening a boutique consultancy and doing business through it? It won't be the megacorp, and the person in charge, you, will actually be capable of wrapping their head around someone like yourselves? I say "yourselves" because there may be people in your situation who'll find it interesting. Name it "Cache", a pun on "cash" and invalidated grizzled software veterans to pool in their networks and save the day.
> very senior software engineer
>> they do seem to occasionally look for this type of engineer<p>I have worked for one of those giants as a senior engineer with almost as much experience as yours, I don't remember many engineers actively developing beyond the senior level (level 63/64 at MS for reference) but we did have quite a few old guys (and a bit less girls) at those levels.
40 years and still programming here. I get freelance gigs through contacts, word of mouth, and an agency that represents me. Before freelancing I got f/t jobs for a long time solely through contacts and former co-workers. I’d start with your professional network. Job boards and gig marketplaces are a last resort, IMO.
A great question. I'm partially-grizzled (only 20 years experience) and looking for the same thing. Some sort of Principle Software Engineer with technical focus and no direct people management responsibilities. Searching LinkedIn brings back plenty of job hits...but it's mostly MegaCorp jobs like you mention.