Discussion on:

Can tech pros over 40 avoid management roles?

Many of the techies I have met who have wanted to stay techie also want to stay challenged by new things. One option not explored in our expert's reply: the possibility of contracting.

The current company may be able to provide enough short contracts to give the new business a head start. Investigate this. Short contracts from a past employer will send good messages to other potential clients that they were happy enough with your work to get you back. That may make it easier to get contracts elsewere. If they don't want you (even on a more "market rate" pay scale) then you need to examine why.

By being independent, you get to work with smaller outfits who can't afford your skills fulltime and these organisations often have interesting challenges. Some of this must have been a reason behind your move to a start-up (if it was just money, you need to look more at the whole job next time!). You may also get into bigger organisations who need short term help (parental leave, extraprojects, etc) to broaden your experience. You will need to show that you work at keeping up to date - probably at your own exspence.

Also, if you are freelance, there seems to be less questions like, "has your career stalled" and "why aren't you a manager at your age". You are running your own business (with all its ups and downs anyway).

Large government IT shops at all levels -- municipal, state, and federal -- have gigantic, complex applications that require exceptional programming expertise to keep them running, often in older languages that younger workers have never learned. They also have huge network support, operations, and help desk organizations, as well as other kinds of IT specialties that are unique to the public sector. Today is probably not a good day to go looking for a government job unless you want to ride theHomeland Security bubble. (As the Washington Post put it, their motto is "If you feel safe, we're not doing our job.") But when and if the economy returns to normal, a government IT shop is a perfect place to spend the rest of your career doing non-managerial work but continuing to earn promotions and salary increases.

Of course you can avoid a management role and stay in the technical trenches! Being a manager requires a different skill set than being a technical IT contributer--and most upper managers know this. Although there are times when moving from a technical position to one in management is successful, it usually takes training and mentoring and a real separation from the urge to do it yourself instead of leading the team.

Manager skills include the ability to lead a team, stay focused on meeting team goals and corporate goals, communication from upper mgt to staff, providing growth opportunities to your team, overseeing projects, etc. A manager should understand the technology being used but does not necessarily need the technical skills to perform the work themselves.

You should play up your technical skills and tell your employer where you believe you can be a better business asset--in a technical role.

If your worry is that you may appear less hireable because of your age and a perception that older workers should be managers or something's wrong...just keep up to date on the latest tech tools and skills in your technical area and let that be an indicator of where you want to go in your field.

The best career path is not always up the corporate ladder, sometimes its sideways.