How to avoid the software salary ceiling

"Many people reach senior software engineer, and then they get stuck. They’ll still be a “senior” level developer 5 or 10 years later. For many, getting stuck is just fine. They like coding, and they don’t want to manage people, and the money is pretty good."

I have a problem with this part. Basically, being a developer and not making it to a managing position is "getting stuck". I strongly disagree with that. Developers and managers have very different roles, a great developer will not necessarily be a great manager. It's like expecting great athletes to become great coaches, and if they don't they're stuck?

Is becoming a manager really a promotion? I would argue that in such a hot market great developers should be making more money than their own manager.

It's unclear to me if that was his message or if he was trying to get across the more nuanced "my experience at Google should be a signal about my qualifications"

Or just be a CONSULTANT and raise your rates usng the wealth of information like patio11.

Seriously, FTE is considered "the" way to fo by far too many people. Is it really that hard to manage your own health insurance plan and deduct taxes?

I think he means stuck financially, not career wise since they have chosen to stay as a developer.

His answer to how to move ahead financially is to specialize. So maybe that is the general advice is to find something to specialize in or you are just seen as a commodity by management. If you are a commodity (e.g. general web developer with X years) then you may not get higher rates.

> Is it really that hard to manage your own health insurance plan and deduct taxes?

No, but it's hard (for many) to actually find work then negotiate a price. And for certain types of problems that people want to work on, there won't be many non-employe openings. Dealing with large bodies of sensitive data, for example, would be one I'd think it'd be harder to find consultant positions - not impossible, but more difficult.