If doing 100% programing isn't working out in the real world for you, then you may want to look into a "super sysadmin / devops" role in which your main job is

If doing 100% programing isn't working out in the real world for you, then you may want to look into a "super sysadmin / devops" role in which your main job is one thing, but gets greatly enhanced if you can program. These aren't positions that are actually advertised for, but happens to be the role that I've always fell into. That is, on paper I'm a Unix/Linux systems engineer, but I put my C programming (and other languages) to use in areas that cause me to get ahead of my peers. Typically this involves creating ad-hoc monitoring scripts, doing devops type of work, or backporting security patches to unsupported OS versions (that we are required to keep around for various reasons). Or coming up with tooling (full-stack web apps) that enhance my department's efficiency. Things like that. So people think I'm a super coder, but I probably wouldn't be successful doing it full time.