I'm about 15 years into my career, and I've been writing code the whole time. In hindsight, a lot of my code has held up well. I just heard that code I wrote 10 years ago is flying in space, so that's cool. I've been at my current job 6 years, and since it was a small startup when I joined and it's grown fairly big, I'm one of the most senior employees. About a year ago I was given the title, "software architect", mainly just so that I can officially make unilateral technical decisions in the presence of ambiguity when there's a schedule crunch.
Just in the last few months, I've found it difficult to be personally productive writing much code. Between catching COVID, then a string of other viruses, and having a young daughter and a baby on the way, I just haven't had a lot of quality focus time. Instead to feel like I'm earning my paycheck, I've had success in writing out high level architecture documents and diagrams, then relying on my coworkers to take over ownership and execute on the details. It's actually seemingly working out well, since I'll be going out on paternity leave toward the end of the year.
Just in the last few months, I've found it difficult to be personally productive writing much code. Between catching COVID, then a string of other viruses, and having a young daughter and a baby on the way, I just haven't had a lot of quality focus time. Instead to feel like I'm earning my paycheck, I've had success in writing out high level architecture documents and diagrams, then relying on my coworkers to take over ownership and execute on the details. It's actually seemingly working out well, since I'll be going out on paternity leave toward the end of the year.