5 ms·

I think it is a little bit of exaggeration to claim Senior Developer title on a project with unfamiliar tech stack.

tehlike 9y ago
much of the knowledge in one stack translates to another. you can know RDBMS, and pick up, say, spanner. you can know IIS, and pick up node. I never cared about what stack someone uses.
- marktangotango 9y ago
  Same here, s an example, all ORM's have to model the same abstractions for example, so after you've worked with one, the next is MUCH easier to pick up. Same with MVC frameworks, etc. There's a lot of convergence among languages and frameworks now.
sverhagen 9y ago
Every place has its own names for things, but I often see "senior" refer to your interchangeable seniority in the field, not just in the one company/code base. Then for people to grow into "lead" or "principal".
- johan_larson 9y ago
  Senior Developer is typically either a junior or intermediate title. In some places, the title progression for technical professionals is (dev, senior dev, staff dev, principal dev, arch, senior arch), meaning Senior is actually a junior title. In other places, the title progression is (dev I, dev II, senior dev, staff dev, senior staff dev, principal), meaning Senior is an intermediate title. There is of course some variability across companies, but it's safe to say that "Senior Developer" is never an actually senior position. People holding it are never in charge of big things.
  - falcolas 9y ago
    It's worth noting that most non-enterprise companies (i.e. not Microsoft, IBM, or Oracle) don't implement staff or principal prefixes, making senior the top of the list. I haven't had a principal prefix since I worked for Oracle (and got there via an acquisition where I was a senior), yet I'm always at or near the top of the development ladder for my department. As always, you need to ask questions, not make assumptions.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
- noway421 9y ago
  Yeah, I think seniority in field means knowing the interchangeable parts of the stack. Even if the particular technology might be unknown to you, you still know the challenges each part might be representing and how to overcome them/what you should be aware of. It might be that I read the question wrong. OP says that the tech stack is unfamiliar, and I guess it comes down on whether they've been familiar with a similar tech stack or something is architecturely different.
OliverJones 9y ago
It's the way of the world. Tech stacks have life spans roughly one fifth of the duration of human careers.
emodendroket 9y ago
To the contrary, I'd say the ability to pick up a product in an unfamiliar tech stack and be productive relatively quickly is one factor that would make you more deserving of the "senior" qualification.
- sidcool 9y ago
  Spot on, that's the expectation from me.
sidcool 9y ago
There is no such official role in my organization. But the expectation from me, owing to my experience, is to ramp up fast and lead the engineering aspects of the team.
sidcool 9y ago
I agree with you, but as a Senior Developer, I am expected to pick up the tech stack quickly, and help the team learn good engineering practices, which are pretty much applicable to all stacks (DRY, SOLID, KISS etc.)

much of the knowledge in one stack translates to another. you can know RDBMS, and pick up, say, spanner. you can know IIS, and pick up node. I never cared about what stack someone uses.

marktangotango 9y ago
Same here, s an example, all ORM's have to model the same abstractions for example, so after you've worked with one, the next is MUCH easier to pick up. Same with MVC frameworks, etc. There's a lot of convergence among languages and frameworks now.

sverhagen 9y ago

Every place has its own names for things, but I often see "senior" refer to your interchangeable seniority in the field, not just in the one company/code base. Then for people to grow into "lead" or "principal".

johan_larson 9y ago
Senior Developer is typically either a junior or intermediate title. In some places, the title progression for technical professionals is (dev, senior dev, staff dev, principal dev, arch, senior arch), meaning Senior is actually a junior title. In other places, the title progression is (dev I, dev II, senior dev, staff dev, senior staff dev, principal), meaning Senior is an intermediate title. There is of course some variability across companies, but it's safe to say that "Senior Developer" is never an actually senior position. People holding it are never in charge of big things.
- falcolas 9y ago
  It's worth noting that most non-enterprise companies (i.e. not Microsoft, IBM, or Oracle) don't implement staff or principal prefixes, making senior the top of the list. I haven't had a principal prefix since I worked for Oracle (and got there via an acquisition where I was a senior), yet I'm always at or near the top of the development ladder for my department. As always, you need to ask questions, not make assumptions.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
noway421 9y ago
Yeah, I think seniority in field means knowing the interchangeable parts of the stack. Even if the particular technology might be unknown to you, you still know the challenges each part might be representing and how to overcome them/what you should be aware of. It might be that I read the question wrong. OP says that the tech stack is unfamiliar, and I guess it comes down on whether they've been familiar with a similar tech stack or something is architecturely different.

OliverJones 9y ago

It's the way of the world. Tech stacks have life spans roughly one fifth of the duration of human careers.

emodendroket 9y ago

To the contrary, I'd say the ability to pick up a product in an unfamiliar tech stack and be productive relatively quickly is one factor that would make you more deserving of the "senior" qualification.

sidcool 9y ago
Spot on, that's the expectation from me.

sidcool 9y ago

There is no such official role in my organization. But the expectation from me, owing to my experience, is to ramp up fast and lead the engineering aspects of the team.

sidcool 9y ago

I agree with you, but as a Senior Developer, I am expected to pick up the tech stack quickly, and help the team learn good engineering practices, which are pretty much applicable to all stacks (DRY, SOLID, KISS etc.)