Programmer at Microsoft (still) for 27 years here. The pressure to "grow your career" (usually by moving into management) was and is ever-present. I've never been managed out, but have had numerous conversations with managers over the years along the lines of "look, I just love to write code and work with other people who love to write code too." I consider success to be defined by me in the feelings I derive from the work I do, the simplicity of the code I write, and the knowledge that its valuable in solving problems that my employer wants to see solved. Yet, the culture seems to still be fixated on measuring success by steady progression of increasing levels or changing titles. Whatever... it's for each of us, corporate ladder climbers included, to define what success means for ourselves and how to go about achieving it, I suppose.