> I really think that I did very bad choice with my career.
Sadly, I have come to a similar conclusion: tech is a great way to earn money early (because the wages rise quickly), but the ceiling hits early and is quite hard to break through. Use those early years to save up money, then switch to something else.
That is a really sad thought. I am currently leading the technology team at a 4 year startup (~ 30 technical people, 80 total employees). About a year ago I hired as DevOps a guy who is in his early 40's, who had been working in lots of stuff.
Shit, that has been the BEST decision I have even made. This guy has been helping us mature in our processes and the way we do things. Before him, we were just kiddos playing the technology startup game. We knew what we were doing, but we had no idea of how a big company did things.
What 40+ people can give you is a really huge amount of experience. These guys have seen things and the majority of problems are not new for them. I am myself in 35, and still consider myself kind of a noob in a lot of real life development processes.
I worked with a freelancer once when he was brought in to help pick up the slack due to two people going on paternity leave, guy was being paid more per day than the two guys were getting in a week.
Contract work has interested me since then, but it looks like a real hard slog to get good income.
My first year I made € 8000 (though that was mostly due to trying to make my own product). I recommend building a buffer before you take the leap, though once I'd had my first big project, it's been fairly smooth sailing.
Sadly, I have come to a similar conclusion: tech is a great way to earn money early (because the wages rise quickly), but the ceiling hits early and is quite hard to break through. Use those early years to save up money, then switch to something else.