请问HN：各位资深人士，你们的职业生涯是如何发展的？
我是一名拥有约20年经验的软件工程师，最近我对未来的方向感到有些迷茫。
为了提供一些背景信息，我一直对软件工程充满热情，从很小的时候就开始从事这项工作，并且从那时起就没有停止过。我主要在网页开发领域工作，几乎掌握了整个技术栈的各个层面（基础设施和云计算、数据库、后端、网络、前端，甚至还有一点移动开发）。在闲暇时间，我也一直是独立游戏开发者。
在过去的5到10年里，我在日常工作中没有再有所成长或学习，感觉自己基本上已经见识过一切。工作变得重复乏味，经历过多次技术泡沫后，我对主要趋势不再感兴趣，因为基础知识是相同的，旧事物总会重新焕发新生。
多年来，我在许多公司工作过，从大公司到初创企业，涉及B2B和B2C，既有直接雇佣也有作为承包商的经历，以及在网页开发代理机构的工作。我发现，虽然我喜欢技术领导和软件的各种设计与规范阶段，但我并不喜欢管理人。出于这些原因，我也不想成为首席技术官，因为这意味着无休止的会议。然而，行业似乎认为正常的职业发展路径是放弃开发者的角色，转而管理团队，这对我来说是一个完全陌生的想法，因为这涉及到完全不同的技能和知识。
现在，我的职业生涯处于一个阶段，找不到一个真正重视和利用我知识与经验的公司。我常常是团队中资历最深的，甚至比一些经理和CTO还要资深，但却没有多少权力或影响力，只是机器中的一颗齿轮。我看到错误的发生，并且知道这样做的代价（因为我经历过很多次），我尽力去解释并推荐替代方案，但往往这些错误仍然会发生。
我早就考虑过转向专业的游戏开发，因为我发现那里的挑战更有趣且充满乐趣，而且我在这方面还有很多东西可以学习。但作为一名丈夫和父亲，行业的声誉（低薪和加班）让我很难认真考虑。我现在在想，自由职业可能是我未来的最佳选择，然后从这里开始探索和构建。
我知道这里有一些资深人士（30、40岁以上），所以我很想听听你们的经历。你们是否曾有过类似的感受？你们是怎么做的，最终如何找到一份令人满意的日常工作？
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I am a software engineer with about 20 years of experience, and lately I have felt a bit lost about what to do going forward.<p>For the context, I have always been passionate about software engineering, I started very young and have worked in it non stop every since. I mostly worked broadly in web development and have pretty-much mastered all areas and layers of the stack (infra and cloud, databases, backend, network, front-end and even a bit of mobile...). I've also been an indie game dev on my free time ever since.<p>For the last 5~10 years I have not been evolving or learning anymore in my daily job, and feel that I've basically seen everything. It only feels repetitive, and as I've lived through many tech bubbles, I don't get much interested in the major trends because the fundamentals are the same and everything old gets new again.<p>Over the years, I've worked in many companies, from big ones to fresh startups, B2B and B2C, in direct and as a contractor as well as web dev agencies. I've also found out that while I like tech leading and the various design and spec phases of software, I don't like managing people. I do not want to evolve as a CTO either because of those reasons and the endless meetings. But the industry seems to think that the normal path forward is to quit being a developer and manage people instead, which is a totally alien idea to me because it involves completely different skills and knowledge.<p>I am now at a step in my career where I find it impossible to find a company where my knowledge and experience is really valued and useful. I'm often the most senior, more than even the managers and CTOs, but have less power or influence and am just another cog in the machine. I see the mistakes being made and know what it will cost (because I've been there and done that many times), I do my best to explain that and recommend alternatives, but more often than not it still happens anyway.<p>I've long considered switching to game dev professionally since I find that it has a lot more fun and interesting challenge, and I yet have lots of things to learn there. But as a husband and a dad, the reputation of the industry (low salary and crunch time) makes it difficult to seriously consider. I'm now thinking that freelancing my be my best bet going forward, and then explore and build things from here.<p>I know that there are more senior (30, 40+ years...) people around here, so I'm curious to hear your experiences. Did you ever feel the same way, what did you do and how did you finally find a satisfying daily job?