What happens to software developers who don't become managers?

I have a more pessimistic answer, unfortunately. The lucky ones retire early, living well off a lifetime of savings from their lucrative careers. They found a startup. Ninety-five percent of the time, this just dissipates their life savings, but two percent of the time, they hit a home run. They develop a library and make a modest living selling and supporting the library. In the days of open source, this is getting more difficult, but it used to be a thing. They lose a job during their fifties, one of many they’ve lost after a project completed or an economic downturn occurred, and have to retire because no one wants to hire an “old” software developer. They take a series of six month contracts. Contracts don’t pay as well as being a regular, full time worker (despite what you may have thought), but they have more control over their hours and working environment. Many contracts forbid the developer to work more than 40 hours a week for budgetary purposes, whereas the same companies work their regular employees 60 hours a week. Go figure. They keep this up as long as they can hustle work, hoping there is no economic downturn. They get so frustrated with the work environment and dumb management decisions that they quit being software developers altogether. I knew one that bought a gluten-free bakery.

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