> Do [older developers] leave programming completely, due to burnout or for a career switch, or are they moving up into management positions? It's not necessar

> Do [older developers] leave programming completely, due to burnout or for a career switch, or are they moving up into management positions? It's not necessarily "up", although it can be - it's a different job. At companies with a strong engineering culture, there is the opportunity to move up while staying in an individual contributor role. I don't think we should use this kind of language, because it implies that careers are a one-track road, and if you don't move into management you're in a dead end. At functional companies this is not true. http://www.quora.com/Engineering-Ladders http://www.quora.com/Engineering-Ladders Although, admittedly there seem to be fewer engineers than managers above a certain rank (anecdotal, I have no numbers). I would be interested to hear theories about why this is. Perhaps it is a natural reflection of the same age distribution discussed in this article? I.e., there are fewer older/highly skilled programmers, but not fewer older people skilled in management and leadership.