I recently came across an acquaintaince who had about 20 years of experience in the software development field, and was wondering what next he should do at this point in his career and life, though I didnt have the opportunity to share my answers to him, at the top of my head, these were my thoughts

• Management
• Mentorship

Management

With over 20 years in your belt, you should have the opportunity to notice how trends have been shaped, improved and change, move to the top of the Product Development Cycle which is either(idea => design) or(design => implementation) or(design => user adoption) you should be able to match any of these with your personal capacity and strengths.

Mentorship

Give back to the community, what is it that you have learnt over this years that you can share with the younger generation of budding software developers and enthusiasts, trust me, its a very lonely journey for those starting and having someone with long term experience to talk to can be de-stressing and comforting, the side benefit is that, it helps you keep up with the latest trends in technology and also keep you abreast with industry trends too.

However, after spending over 20 years in any field, I tend think that there are a broad spectrum of choices after that long period of time, anyone should have figured their edge and strengths by now to know where they can focus the remaining part of their time and energy on.