Starting this year I reached "10 years in software" anniversary. I'm not counting the time I worked part time during studies, only full-time professional experience. This seems like a pretty significant mark as a lot of people I've worked with had made a shift in their career. For example some moved from engineering to management. Many transitioned into software development from a different field, like QA. And some did not started off with a degree in computer science. So starting from an university and getting all the way to the 10 years mark does not seem that common.

When I think back about how I started in software development years ago... feels funny how far technologies have evolved. I was optimizing websites for IE7. It was so new and cool when HTML5 and CSS3 came out. JavaScript ecosystem was without react, and jQuery was more or less the only choice. It's great to see all the progress, though it also made it all way more complex. Well, I suppose on one side easier for people who are just using all the frameworks and libraries without deeper knowledge, but for senior developers who need to see under the hood it surely is more complex these days. And AI won't help much in that way.

I'm really thankful for all the opportunities I got along the way. I worked hard to get where I am and I can't wait to see where this path takes me next. I enjoy coding and creating things, while I'm also working on my soft skills and given my vast experience, I believe any of these two would be good step forward for me - continue as a skilled software engineer, team leader or pursue career in management.