>This is often not a good sign, i.e. if the code is so messy no one can understand it. But if it's so technically challenging only him can understand, then that

>This is often not a good sign, i.e. if the code is so messy no one can understand it. But if it's so technically challenging only him can understand, then that's a great position to be in! What he built required specialized knowledge of a GUI driven product that had a very convoluted C# SDK for developing custom add-ons. So it was less about messy code and more about there being very few people who could understand all 4 aspects (The product, C#, the SDK, and how the SDK related to the GUI). >I guess the tldr of your story is to stay away from these big companies and to work directly for your clients? Yes and No. Sometimes to get paid well as a contractor you need to find other ways to get gigs than finding standard contract recruitment that comes through LinkedIn. In the case of the person I knew, he had basically created an add-on product and was charging hourly for services to maintain and add features.