I used to believe that writing code was the essence of being a great software engineer. The more code I wrote, the more value I delivered —at least, that’s what I thought early in my career.

I loved the feeling of getting into flow, solving hard problems, and shipping features that made a real impact.

But somewhere along the way, things started to shift.

My days became filled with architectural discussions, design documents, one-on-ones, code reviews, and meetings.

Suddenly, my impact was no longer defined solely by the lines of code I wrote, but by the decisions I made and the support I offered.

It wasn’t an overnight change, and at first, I resisted it. Was I still an engineer if I wasn’t coding every day?

Now, with nearly 15 years in the industry, I’ve come to realize that growth in this field often means stepping away from the keyboard —not because coding isn’t important, but because there are bigger, more complex problems to solve.

The Moment I Realized

At some point, I accidentally came across my GitHub contributions graph, and it looked like this:

At first, it was a shock. I had always taken pride in my contributions, but now it seemed like I had barely written any code at all.

But then, I reminded myself of the features my team and I had shipped over the past couple of years.

I realized that the value I brought as an engineer wasn’t in the code I wrote but in the problems I solved, the systems I designed, and the people I helped grow.

I attended several meetings, and hosted numerous stand-ups.

I created lots of tickets, and spent hours refining our backlog.

Not to mention the amount of changed files I reviewed, and the times I jumped into pair programming sessions with my teammates.

I was still an engineer, but my contribution was no longer measured in lines of code.

How do I feel about it?

To be honest, I've now embraced this new phase of my career.

It's challenging in a different way, but it's also incredibly rewarding.

Sometimes it can be frustrating though. There are the days when I simply don't want to attend another meeting or write another document.

In fact, I would prefer to just sit down and code.

But at the end of the day, I still feel productive and fulfilled.

I'm developing skills I never would have had the chance to learn if I had stayed heads-down in the codebase.

What's next for me?

I'm not sure what the future holds.

One I know for a fact is that I'm not ready to give up on coding yet.

I still need it in my day to day life, and I still enjoy it.

Do I have the time to develop my hard skills? Not as much as I’d like, but that doesn't mean I can't keep learning.

I'm up to date with the latest technologies, and when I see something that catches my eye, I dive into it.

If you have the methodology and the problem-solving skills, you can always learn a new language or framework.

After all, software engineering is about the mindset, not just the tools.