The problem with this article, it talks about years of experience vs. actual experience. The title is relevant when properly defined. Senior Engineers have the

The problem with this article, it talks about years of experience vs. actual experience. The title is relevant when properly defined. Senior Engineers have the following traits. - Self-motivated - They need a little direction on knowing what's important to focus on. Just because you're "working", doesn't mean you're working on what's important. - Organized - Being organized is an important factor in such a title. As a senior engineer, you're going to be leading others and if you're not organized, then you're not going to be very effective at leading. - Diverse experience - Senior engineers should have diverse experience in the industry. They've experienced building systems from the ground up, scaling them out, learning what's important to build a product that is maintainable, etc. - Keeps technology aligned with business - We write software to support the business. This means being able to identify what's important and a priority. - Strong communication - To be clear, I'm not just talking about writing skill. I'm talking about the ability to communicate status, level set expectations, communicate during times of trouble and more. - Deals with pressure - A lot of junior engineers tend to "react" to everything when the pressure is on. The above items help people deal with pressure. - Leadership skills - I touched on this, but I wanted to be very clear. Being able to influence, lead, organize, etc are all certainly senior engineering skills. I was once that 19 year old engineer at a company who thought I demanded a higher title, more money etc. I get that feeling of pride and respect you have for yourself. That being said, I also really came to understand my shortcomings when I was around 29-30. There's on very important thing I want to point out. I worked with people who had 20 years of experience, but were not that smart. I wouldn't classify them as "Senior" at all. They would argue "years of experience" and I would counter it with actual experience. If you're 20 years of experience was dealing with one product, on one team at one company, you screwed yourself out of actual experience.