After 17 years of being a software engineer, I kept getting asked questions. What do you want to do? Would you like to be a manager? I had exhausted the advancement in engineering and didn't want to be a manager. After the first layoff where I was a "lead" and the manager chickened out and asked me to do the layoffs, I resolved to not take a management role. I also started getting design questions. What's the best way to do this? How could I help make sure the design mistakes that plagued past product didn't happen again? How can we update the product for new platforms? And, connections outside company insisted I help them do some design work as well. The company I was at encouraged moonlighting, as long as it didn't conflict with your assignments 9-5.
When I started making more money moonlighting than at the 9-5 job, I cut the ties and formed my own business. The first year was fantastic with the varied work, travel, and succcesses, but then I ran into issues with overhead (travel and health insurance). I was making ends meet, but it wasn't a gold mine. The jobs were crazy good, but the accounting and minutia of being in business weren't my thing. A majority of my jobs as a consultant had me running into my current employer. After about 6 months of back-and-forth, I jumped from private consultant to a full-time professional services consultant, where I've been for 15 years now. As I still felt entrepreneurial, I created several roles in the organization. Currently a design architect, it's the role I'll retire from unless something really good catches my eye.
TL;DR software engineer -> consultant -> customer support -> consulting support -> architect over 30+ years, with the transition from software engineer to services happening at about 17 years.
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After 17 years of being a software engineer, I kept getting asked questions. What do you want to do? Would you like to be a manager? I had exhausted the advancement in engineering and didn't want to be a manager. After the first layoff where I was a "lead" and the manager chickened out and asked me to do the layoffs, I resolved to not take a management role. I also started getting design questions. What's the best way to do this? How could I help make sure the design mistakes that plagued past product didn't happen again? How can we update the product for new platforms? And, connections outside company insisted I help them do some design work as well. The company I was at encouraged moonlighting, as long as it didn't conflict with your assignments 9-5. When I started making more money moonlighting than at the 9-5 job, I cut the ties and formed my own business. The first year was fantastic with the varied work, travel, and succcesses, but then I ran into issues with overhead (travel and health insurance). I was making ends meet, but it wasn't a gold mine. The jobs were crazy good, but the accounting and minutia of being in business weren't my thing. A majority of my jobs as a consultant had me running into my current employer. After about 6 months of back-and-forth, I jumped from private consultant to a full-time professional services consultant, where I've been for 15 years now. As I still felt entrepreneurial, I created several roles in the organization. Currently a design architect, it's the role I'll retire from unless something really good catches my eye. TL;DR software engineer -> consultant -> customer support -> consulting support -> architect over 30+ years, with the transition from software engineer to services happening at about 17 years.