Yes, even socially.<p>Maybe some fellow countryman would speak otherwise, but in Portugal if after 40 you are not a manager of some sort, it is like you failed at it.<p>It is also hard to avoid such situations when quite a few companies use senior developer, technical lead or technical architect as synonyms for team manager. So you only discovered what you really applied to, after being inside.<p>After a certain age if you want to stay in development it is like dodging bullets.