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Part of the problem is there just aren't a lot of people out there who can correctly judge that level of experience, and looking up the spectrum tends to simply look weird.

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I agree. Do you have any thoughts on how to mitigate this? After all, its in your best advantage and the companies to hire someone with talents because of the value they can bring.

Unfortunately (at least in my opinion) the way to mitigate it is make contacts, friends, colleagues etc. Meet people, stay in touch with them. In my experience relationships are by far the most important aspect of a career. I'm not naturally someone who forms these relationships easily, but it's by far the most valuable and important thing I've done in terms of the jobs I've had.

It's VERY rare for me to work with people capable of even seeing the level I'm working at, sad but true. I suspect my solutions simply look weird to them, maybe with a touch of NIH-syndrome; even if they eventually grow to appreciate the integrity of the code. And it's difficult to see code that's never written, which is feel is the biggest win I bring to the table.

This means I'm mostly judged by my ability to perform mindless drone work.

Not really, except having a lot of experience on board from the start.

Which will also naturally attract more of the same.

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