How to build a career as a senior developer?

Question

Career in IT

To begin with, I inserted "senior" in the title, so as not to be confused with questions about the beginning of a career and about standard development paths, I consider myself just a qualified specialist.

Now I'm 33, 12 years of experience, all these years I've been coding (didn't move from an adjacent industry, that's how I came as a developer, and still a developer). During my entire career, I changed 4 jobs, at first it gave a big boost to the salary, and in general I wanted to see what it was like in other companies. The last job, a small (indeed even small) product company, hooked me and spent 5 years in the company. Peter, the salary is higher than the market.

But for the last six months or a year, I began to feel "age", that time is not unlimited (who is older will understand). What stagnation. I looked at colleagues with whom I had a chance to work, and who did not go to team leads or projects. Everyone works in corporations, I thought maybe I was doing something wrong?

He tried to leave for another company, after working a little, and returned. The same eggs, only in profile, which are sometimes seasoned with all sorts of corp. cultures (intrigue, intrigue, people just working from start to finish). Although in the current company I already almost know, but we are constantly introducing something new, that is, the company does not stand still holding on to the product, it always follows the technology market. But still, the course does not change fundamentally. I constantly monitor the market, and the industry as a whole, there is no feeling of lagging behind, but the scale is picking up.

Actually the question is what's next? Throw in your opinion, change jobs, so as not to "stay up" and get a "scale"? Continue to work while "working"? Another option?

PS I consider moving to another country as the last option.

Answer 1

you are 33 years old, it's too late to ask, it's time to decide for yourself what to do in life.

Answer 2

1) Writing effective code and having an outlook is not a critical skill for a senior. A large number of people acquire this skill to one degree or another.
2) Knowledge of the industry and its specifics, and how to write code for this specificity is a much more important skill, which is paid for with good money. If this industry is vast and money-rich (great demand for programmers and great opportunities for companies, then we get bingo). That is why so many bank programmers stay in fintech, because they understand that they are paid “above the market”, not for writing code, but for knowing the specifics of fintech. The same is true for telecom, logistics, real estate, medicine, chat servers and so on.
3) If you want to be in demand as a senior, whom everyone wants and invites, you need to choose just such industries.

Answer 3

Your question is not for a toaster.
If you sit down and re-read your question objectively, you will understand that you are not asking anything technical. You ask "what should I do - sit where everything is already familiar and warm, or rush somewhere headlong, leaving the comfort zone"
Everyone will answer this question based on their own experience and position, but none of yours will be taken into account. social and family ties, not your current health, not your inner desire.
Migration abroad is always a question not only of work and salary, but of the whole environment - how to live, with whom to communicate outside of work and how to raise children.
ps The only thing I can say is that it's probably good that you started thinking about it so early ( onlyat 33), but how to build your life is up to you.

Answer 4

everyone grows to the level of their incompetence. if you have not grown up to at least a team lead in 15 years, then this is your limit.
you will have to change your profession, in another 5, well 10 years, you will not be able to compete with the youth and your career will end there.

Answer 5

spoiler

Заходишь в мой профиль. читаешь почти все статьи по ссылке и в т.ч. комментарии от коллег. осознаешь всё.
На лицо симптом того, что ты спекся.

all these years - coding (did not move from an adjacent industry, that's how he came as a developer, and is still a developer)

don't blame yourself for this. You didn't know what was going to happen to you. This is fine. We were all sure that this work would be at least 50 years with us.

But for the last six months or a year, I began to feel "age", that time is not unlimited (who is older will understand

It's not old yet, to be honest. You will feel your age after 35, and at 36-38 it will be really bad.

Everyone works in corporations, I thought maybe I was doing something wrong?

there is more bureaucracy in corporations and you don't have to code like a slave in a galley, yes. They did the right thing. You are not.

PS I consider moving to another country as the last option.

dude what other country? What are you talking about? You just burned out, you've been coding for 12 years, this is NOT normal, no matter who writes here. For another 5 years of coding, you will go out the window, realizing that you are marking time in the same place as an adult, and young people will step on your heels, working better and faster.
The problem is known and there is no solution.

Answer 6

last7 Have
you thought about changing the stack? It is not necessary to radically go into something fundamentally different. You can go to an adjacent one, where you can apply existing skills. For example, I know a very strong Sharpist / dba, who has been writing under WPF all his life, and now he has moved to ASP.NET.

Answer 7

Work as a signor for yourself, get new skills, you can look in the direction of those leads. Or even an evangelist. Well, yes, be aware of management, many do not like this, but this is a necessary skill.