>What is an IC? Individual Contributor, used to contrast with "Manager". Point being, my main job is to design systems and write code, but I still have to do s

>What is an IC? Individual Contributor, used to contrast with "Manager". Point being, my main job is to design systems and write code, but I still have to do some of the organizational stuff sometimes. >There are loads of shops where the developers, even senior developers, mostly just write code. Okay, so your experience is different from mine. I'm surprised that there are places where this is really not a meaningful job requirement, and I've never worked at one, but I believe you. >it's something people can learn if they want to Sure... but so is coding. Part of the point of an interview is to see what skills and traits you already have. If you're missing some, that can be balanced against the ones you do have - it's not a dealbreaker, but it is still a negative. >Some people don't want to. There are roles for them too. Again, not where I work. Engineering, even at relatively junior levels, includes collaboration and explaining your work. You can't just say you don't want to do that - or rather, you can, but you'll have no upward mobility and be managed out pretty quickly.