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I work with a developer who's in his 50s. He chose not only to stay in development but also to stay on the front end where he turns out beautiful and beautiful

I work with a developer who's in his 50s. He chose not only to stay in development but also to stay on the front end where he turns out beautiful and beautifully effective UIs using Angular. He enjoys his job, earns great pay and plenty of stock and has the respect of his managers and junior colleagues. He has helped the engineers around him perform to a higher level and teaches, but he loves creating through code and is very good at it. He also has earned enough trust and is productive enough that when he says "The snow is great today, so I'll be skiing," that's just understood as his privilege. So that's what happened to one person.

goldenchrome 5y ago
Those people are in precarious positions. All it takes is one bad manager to join the team and misunderstand his value before he loses all his power. I've found those people usually don't create as much value as they think anyway. It takes an extraordinary IC to match the business value of a decent manager.
- dhbradshaw 5y ago
  If his status came from the trust of one person that might be true. But it comes from ability and from character and from the consequent respect of many people. One bad manager could certainly tank his group (as in https://steveblank.com/2009/12/21/the-elves-leave-middle-earth-%E2%80%93-soda%E2%80%99s-are-no-longer-free/ https://steveblank.com/2009/12/21/the-elves-leave-middle-ear...) but that theoretical manager wouldn't tank him -- he can just move on to a better place. I hired him once and if he were in a bad spot I'd hire him again in a heartbeat. In the meantime, of course, he has lived within his means for years and could weather any financial storms likely to blow his way.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]