Sticky identities

When I started career in software in 2015, every job application I filled out had the same dropdown. I picked frontend. Not because I didn't write backend code — I did, throughout my whole career. But the dropdown needed an answer, and frontend was where my mass-applied recruiter keywords lived. You know how it is. Required field. Pick one. Move on. Except you don't move on. That answer followed me for a decade. The jobs I saw. The filters I passed. The ones I didn't. A dropdown became a label.