There’s a phrase I heard while back, I don’t live to work, I work to live.

High performance software engineers negotiate for higher salary and the type of work environment and type of projects. They work to live by taking control over their salary and project assignments.

Sometimes, they have to work on less interesting projects. They deliver solutions. At the same time, they regularly have conversations on other more interesting projects. Make sure they line up more interesting projects in the roadmap.

There’s more risk in stagnating position than taking control and regularly switching jobs for higher salary and more interesting projects.

There are significantly more software engineering problems than people that can deliver solutions. High performance software engineers can have their cake and eat it too.