It's much easier to consult, with the added benefit of (generally) being more tax efficient. The problem is that companies rarely offer that kind of path - mos

It's much easier to consult, with the added benefit of (generally) being more tax efficient. The problem is that companies rarely offer that kind of path - most often because they don't need true specialists or don't need them all the time. Make sure a company really needs a specialist role: In some companies you'll see a fake tech specialist path being given to senior engineers who want more money or managers who were too troublesome to keep on the people side. It's not any different from normal senior contributor. The VP or CTO generally have an incentive (which often goes against the business) not to lose staff (especially senior level) as they won't necessarily be able to claim back the budget from the business and won't make them look as good as it could ("my department is bigger than yours"). Eventually results don't happen, the board gets tired, fires everyone (or create unfavourable conditions) and the corporate cycle restarts.