I'm 39 and will be turning 40 next year. I live in Singapore (no, it's not in China and it's no where near China). I was faced with this dilemma early 2021.

I'm 39 and will be turning 40 next year. I live in Singapore (no, it's not in China and it's no where near China). I was faced with this dilemma early 2021. I was working in a large Wall Street bank and it felt like I was just a pawn in the grander scheme of things. The titles there were over-inflated. Every year, some senior guy will get replaced and there will be a re-organization of the division. That translates into people getting laid off or projects being canned. My project, which I worked on for 3 years got canned over a POC by some new guy. The POC didn't even scale to the kind of workload our platform was handling. I switched to a cybersecurity startup in February 2021. I was Engineering Manager. I thought I could call the shots for all engineering decisions and hiring of software engineers. I was completely off! Not only did I inherit 2 sub-par engineers with poor work ethics, the CTO did not have a clue on what he was doing. It's a long story which I can elaborate in my blog; but I left in July 2021. What I concluded after this experience, in terms of salary, impact and respect....all this doesn't really matter. I think the most important thing is you got to love working for your boss. The boss is the most crucial factor to consider. A good boss will be able to provide you the 3 things you mentioned. Titles don't matter either. Just make sure you aren't underpaid for someone with your experience level, then all's good. One more thing in my list of must haves: the company you join must have people that you consider way smarter and experienced than you are. This sort of environment allows me to learn and upskill myself.