In my past two jobs, I've found that the software engineers who want to still be software engineers in a decade are in the minority - maybe a third of the workf

In my past two jobs, I've found that the software engineers who want to still be software engineers in a decade are in the minority - maybe a third of the workforce. If you spent your early career wanting to become a manager ASAP, then maybe it's easy to slip up and think of older software engineers as people who failed to make that transition, rather than dedicated individuals.