One thing that I realized way to late and kind of the hard way is that being an "IC" forever is not really realistic, and companies that say that you can, that

One thing that I realized way to late and kind of the hard way is that being an "IC" forever is not really realistic, and companies that say that you can, that they have a management track and a technical track are mainly lying. Realistically, most dev positions only require, value, and will pay for like 5-10 years of experience, and will just churn through people in that range. Even if you don't particularly want to be a manager, it's probably best to feign interest.