I ran into this problem.. I felt like I was worth more than the best offers I was getting. I continued to get job offers, but I couldn't get one for more than 100k remotely or in my area(Burlington, VT).
I've got many many years experience, can solve any challenge, and work at twice the rate of most of the developers I have worked w/ in the tech stacks I focus on(ruby, elixir, reactjs/javascript/ember/angular etc)..
So I decided to go at it on my own and charge a rate I felt I was worth. Best career decision I've made so far. I think every developer reaches a point where the only way they can make more is to move into management and stop being a developer, or branch out on their own. I myself hate being a manager and love being a developer.
Managers generally seem to think that a developer is a developer is a developer. When there is a clear difference between a $50/hr developer and someone who can charge $250/hr in the time it takes to solve the same problem. What takes a $250/hr dev 1hr to solve correctly, might take a jr dev 5hrs to just "get it working."
I've got many many years experience, can solve any challenge, and work at twice the rate of most of the developers I have worked w/ in the tech stacks I focus on(ruby, elixir, reactjs/javascript/ember/angular etc)..
So I decided to go at it on my own and charge a rate I felt I was worth. Best career decision I've made so far. I think every developer reaches a point where the only way they can make more is to move into management and stop being a developer, or branch out on their own. I myself hate being a manager and love being a developer.
Managers generally seem to think that a developer is a developer is a developer. When there is a clear difference between a $50/hr developer and someone who can charge $250/hr in the time it takes to solve the same problem. What takes a $250/hr dev 1hr to solve correctly, might take a jr dev 5hrs to just "get it working."