Another option is to work at a consultancy where you hop aboard a new customer project every 3-6 months. Approach every customer as an opportunity to do some resume-driven development and pick a bunch of untested new technologies to experiment with. Be sure to do at least a couple of presentations to tell everyone about the hottest new things you are doing to bring value to the customers. Leave the project once it slowly starts sinking and then just keep hopping from customer to customer. You will be far away once the sea water starts coming through the windows and the non-technical people directing these projects will never figure out what you did.
I have seen that this is one of the most efficient ways to advance your career especially in larger consultancy companies with hundreds or thousands of different customers.
Tuco is a wanted man, Blondie brings him in and gets the reward money. Then just as Tuco is about to hang, Blondie shoots the rope and they both escape to another state ... where Tuco is also a wanted man.
Government contracting is the pathological case for that: if they haven’t been allowed to hire civil servants, they have no choice but to use a handful of big companies. The shortage of in-house expertise makes it hard to know if the work is being planned or performed correctly so a common strategy is to hire one company to oversee the work of another company. Unfortunately, since there are only a few companies in the space and job hopping is the best path for a raise or to avoid layoffs when contracts turn over, it’s rare for anyone to be very critical of past or future coworkers.
I have seen that this is one of the most efficient ways to advance your career especially in larger consultancy companies with hundreds or thousands of different customers.