I feel the same (from time to time). It's becoming harder and harder to be just "a software engineer" in this industry. All of a sudden, the "perfect" software

I feel the same (from time to time). It's becoming harder and harder to be just "a software engineer" in this industry. All of a sudden, the "perfect" software engineer must: - be "product oriented: "Think big", "Think customers-first", "Get shit done" - make his/her colleagues better (by mentoring, by leading by example, by giving talks) - stand up and make himself heard (e.g., working on projects that touch on multiple teams... because staying in your corner is so 90s) - focus more on "delivering features" instead of making the products more stable (otherwise, no salary increase. Bugfixes don't bring money) - be on call, because "you build it, you run it, you own it" - ... all of these, of course, while keeping your tech skills up-to-date (which is in itself quite taxing)