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> Not every company needs smart capable senior engineers. If you are just doing yet another SAAS CRUD app, you may not need anymore than an architect and some m

> Not every company needs smart capable senior engineers. If you are just doing yet another SAAS CRUD app, you may not need anymore than an architect and some mid level developers. Full stack developers are becoming a commodity. So you recognize even a single simple project like a single SAAS CRUD app requires at least one smart, capable, senior engineer (your architect). Also, I'd say you're overestimating my definition of "senior engineers". A senior engineer is someone who actually completed a project or two. Someone you can entrust with big chunks of development work and be reasonably sure they won't mess it up. Your "mid level developers" are likely senior by this standard, especially since the alternative, "a junior", typically means someone fresh out of college (or boot camp) with about 0 real world experience.

scarface74 8y ago
A senior engineer is someone who actually completed a project or two. Someone you can entrust with big chunks of development work and be reasonably sure they won't mess it up. In that case would I have been considered a “senior developer” straight out of college since I was entrusted to create a fairly large system by myself in the mid 90s? I had spent close to 10 years by then as a hobbyist. If a person who has just completed a project or two and doesn’t know anything about designing large, scalable, maintainable, systems and doesn’t know anything about infrastructure is a “senior developer”, we really either have a horrible level of title inflation in the industry or we just call everyone senior but some are just more senior than others. I’ve been a software developer officially for over 20 years, but I know I really only have the last 10 years of experience and the first 10 or so were only worth about 2. That being said, I agree that any real experience as an individual contributor over 10 years, isn’t worth much for most corporations. On one hand, your salary does peak, but on the other hand, so does your value to the company. As an individual contributor, you only contribute X number of hours worth of semi-commoditized value to the company. As a team lead or technical manager, your knowledge can easily be multiplied across the organization.

scarface74 8y ago

A senior engineer is someone who actually completed a project or two. Someone you can entrust with big chunks of development work and be reasonably sure they won't mess it up. In that case would I have been considered a “senior developer” straight out of college since I was entrusted to create a fairly large system by myself in the mid 90s? I had spent close to 10 years by then as a hobbyist. If a person who has just completed a project or two and doesn’t know anything about designing large, scalable, maintainable, systems and doesn’t know anything about infrastructure is a “senior developer”, we really either have a horrible level of title inflation in the industry or we just call everyone senior but some are just more senior than others. I’ve been a software developer officially for over 20 years, but I know I really only have the last 10 years of experience and the first 10 or so were only worth about 2. That being said, I agree that any real experience as an individual contributor over 10 years, isn’t worth much for most corporations. On one hand, your salary does peak, but on the other hand, so does your value to the company. As an individual contributor, you only contribute X number of hours worth of semi-commoditized value to the company. As a team lead or technical manager, your knowledge can easily be multiplied across the organization.