Career options after 12 years of experience in .Net field.

If you can't ditch programming and you belong as one of the "hard core" programmers then you can stay at that area. I've known alot of people who are over 12 years of experience and still they are working as a developer it's because they love what they are doing and they comfortable to deal with code than people. And note, senior developers can still earn more than a project manager depending on your experience and role as a senior. Mostly, senior developers are responsible for mentoring, leading the technical aspect of the team, do interviews and implement the core system architechture.

 

If you want to move further up in the technical path and confident that you are knowledgeable about the different sets of technogies, then you can go for the Software/Solutions Architect route. Architects is responsible for idenfiying the needs of the stakeholders or clients. In orther words, you ensure that you understand the "what" to build and then propose the "How" to build. You would then design the system architecture, data flows, schemas needed to build the system and then convey that to the development team. The developers will implement the system based on the architecture that you design. You will ensure that the developers are aligned to what you expect from the system and deliver the expected output. Architects will sit along with Project Owners, Operations, Program Managers and Directors to initiate the project. Keep in mind that there are a little possibility that they will code, in most cases they will make code for POCs.

 

If you don't want to deal with code anymore and you want to deal with people, then you can go with Project Manager route. Project Managers are responsible for keeping the project timeline on target and allocating resources for the projects. In most cases developers will report to Managers to identify what tasks they are working. In short, they are responsible for managing the whole life cycle of the project.

 

Development Directors leads all the heads on the Development department, including Architects, Product Owners and Project Managers.

 

Now which path should you take? Well it's only you who can decide. Just keep in mind that each role requires a different sets of skills and it's challenging. This could mean that if you are a rockstar developer, you could be a lousy manager. So weigh in your strenghts and weaknesses and decide from there. 

 

Good luck! Hope this helps.