Thankfully there are still plenty of places where skills like programming and soldering intersect in the "modern era." I also feel (maybe I should say I hope) that we'll see a resurgence in this set of skills in the future as the old guard starts to retire (soon).

I was fortunate to have started my career in the embedded world. I eventually got in to the habit of bringing my laptop and prototypes with me to the lab every morning so that I could stop all of the back-and-forth walking when I needed to attach a lead to a pad, etc...