1) You might underestimate your skills. There's no way for us to say. Apply for things you consider slightly outside your reach, see what happens. 2) Assuming

1) You might underestimate your skills. There's no way for us to say. Apply for things you consider slightly outside your reach, see what happens. 2) Assuming you didn't underestimate - what skills do you want to focus on? You might be stuck in a local maximum, and need to travel in a painful direction for a while to improve your position. 3) Management skill doesn't matter for senior engineers. Leadership matters. As a consultant, you should have developed some skills in that area. 4) An 18-year veteran in the industry can make wildly varying amounts of money. Nothing except equity in a risky startup with high potential, <$100k in a high-prestige industry like video games or SpaceSomething, >$150K working for a large profitable company. Don't pin yourself to your age cohort, figure out what you think you're worth, and which place you'd like to be in. 5) We don't need a general warning. People tell "youngsters" all the time to think about their long term career. They ignore most of the advice, as they should. (If you're young, you're usually prone to take a lot of risk, because recovery is straightforward and easy, and it often leads to valuable experience). At some point in their life, people realize that some of the advice now applies to their life. You're at that point when it comes to "plan ahead". No point looking back, that's not changeable - but look at all the planning advice now, with the benefit of 18 years of experience, and see what applies to you.