Basically there are three career paths in engineering. A: Start your own company or series of companies. This is fraught with risks especially if you're not

Basically there are three career paths in engineering. A: Start your own company or series of companies. This is fraught with risks especially if you're not living in SF. It's harder to get known, get talent, network, etc. B: Become a Manager/Executive. Technically it's not programming anymore, but the lifespan of a coder is maybe 25 years perhaps at best. C: Consulting/Contracting. Large companies are often more willing/able to pay for top talent, more so than startups. The more companies you have experience with, the more you'll learn about what works and what doesn't. This is true for Devops/Architecture/Processes. Once you develop regular clients, it's possible to develop products for common problems and sell them to your clients.