There's risk in managing an engineering career, though you're correct that there's a floor on that risk. Engineers, especially early in their careers, need to m

There's risk in managing an engineering career, though you're correct that there's a floor on that risk. Engineers, especially early in their careers, need to manage their personal development. I often talk to developers that have been writing terrible enterprise products for the same company for a decade. They're typically underpaid and underqualified to find a better position elsewhere. One way to look at that is as poor risk management. Having marketable skills is mitigating risk that the job pool will not be a good fit for your skills next time you are looking for a job. Switching jobs periodically is generally more risk than not, and it's basically required these days since market rates for good software engineers grows a lot faster than employers are comfortable with. Most business models do not survive 10%+ growth in payroll every year.