What are you focusing on to stay relevant long term?

I’m a Staff Backend Engineer based in Germany with about 8 years of experience, mostly in high velocity startups. I’ve always tried to invest in myself consistently, learning new languages, frameworks, system architectures, design patterns, networking, DevOps, etc. I’d consider myself pretty versatile. I also used to read quite a lot of technical books.

Since the AI boom, I’ve mainly been focused on solving problems inside my org and staying up to date through engineering blogs and general industry content. But lately I’ve been struggling with “what’s next?” Specifically, what kind of upskilling actually increases my odds of being in a strong position 10 years from now?

In the past, it felt easier. Stay sharp, follow industry shifts, deepen expertise, and you’re fine. Now I’m not as sure. I can’t clearly say what the best long term moves are anymore.

One obvious path is going further up the management chain, but I’d still like to grow technically. One area I could clearly improve in is frontend, which would probably make me more of a well rounded engineer.

So I’m curious:

• What are you focusing on for longevity?
• Are you doubling down on your core expertise?
• Are you broadening out?
• Do you feel deep expertise alone will still be enough going forward?

Would really appreciate hearing how others are thinking about this.