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Comment by tilolebo | Hacker News Reader

There are companies out there who value the experience of senior software engineers (and I mean real seniority, not the job title that you update to senior after 3 years in the field).

Such companies will have a career ladder up to Principal or Distinguished engineer. You will have to share your knowledge, of course, but without having to give up coding and do people management, if you don't want that.

I'm 39, happy infrastructure engineer, individual contributor. I tried being team lead for some years, but didn't really enjoy people management. That's okay.

Charity Majors wrote some great posts about that:

- https://charity.wtf/2019/09/08/reasons-not-to-be-a-manager/

- https://charity.wtf/2019/11/23/questionable-advice-after-bei...

- https://charity.wtf/2020/09/01/the-official-authorized-list-...

- https://charity.wtf/2020/09/06/if-management-isnt-a-promotio...

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I love the article 'if management isn't a promotion....'

Wish I had read this years ago. Of course it was not out years ago ...

Principal (even many Staff roles) at my company is reduced coding and many have direct reports, so YMMV. To stay coding, stay “senior” level.

I work with a Principal engineer in my team, who used to be the team lead. He works on IC level only, doing a mix of architecture and operations work, with some interviewing on the side.

No direct reports. There are multiple Principals in the same situation. No direct reports, they just usually work on a scope that involves multiple teams,but they don't lead them.

It really depends on the company (or even part of the company if its bigger).

As a Principal I do code less than I used to as Staff or Senior. But I still do a fair amount of coding (along with design, arch, mentoring/guiding). I've made it clear that I want to remain a hands on engineer, and my company has let me remain so.

Not everyone is so lucky to have a choice, but if you do -- In the end, its finding a place where you can get the balance that makes you happy.

When technical track people have direct reports it's usually like here's two senior devs. Give them a sympathetic ear when they get frustrated about something and give them some tips about how to move up to the next level.

When management track people have direct reports it's usually like here's six people to manage. Three of them are junior-level and need constant hand-holding.

He could stay below senior level too. I'm intermediate and almost 9 years in.

9 years feels like a long time, but it's important to remember that it's not even a quarter of the way through your career.

That's assuming one retires at 65. It seems most people in this industry retire closer to 50. I'd say I'm a third of the way in. Many people seem to make senior developer in 5 years. It's all politics though.

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