Another path that you can use if you are already at a big company is to try and distinguish yourself there and move up within that organization. Of course this depends on the people you are working with, but if you have a good manager and are really interested in improving the state of software development at your shop, they'll notice.
For someone who may not be a political animal jumping into a new situation can be challenging. The benefit of working in the same place for a while is you get to know everyone there. Sometimes at a big company that means realizing that everyone there has rotten zombie brains, but there are usually some core of smart interested tech people who are influential.
For someone who may not be a political animal jumping into a new situation can be challenging. The benefit of working in the same place for a while is you get to know everyone there. Sometimes at a big company that means realizing that everyone there has rotten zombie brains, but there are usually some core of smart interested tech people who are influential.