The Individual Contributor role is a double-edged sword; on one hand, almost complete autonomy while making a good salary. On the other hand, no growth path in the corporation.

I'm an IC at my company: completely self-contained and self-managed. I write proposals/bids for government technology contracts, but I write the proposal for our salespeople. They put their name on my document once I am done with it. So they also make the commission. (Which is fine with me... I'd rather a good salary than a big commission any day!)

But I do the job of 3 different people: researcher who finds the opportunities, writer who creates the content, and layout artist who creates the final document in InDesign. Replacing me would take a very unique person.

But ... this is the first time in my life I have had a title/role that can be searched in job listings. So I'm looking around at other proposal writing/management roles, and realizing how little I'd need to do anywhere else... and in my current job I only have about 10 hours a week of real "work" to do.

Bleh. I'd kinda like to have a job in an office again... but I'd have to be able to bring my dog to work. And set my own hours. And I've only got about 10 years to retirement, so why not just chill here in this easy job, and do more fun stuff outside of work?

Like yoga. And exercise. And getting my knee right again with proper PT...