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I see these senior vs non-senior engineer contrasts pop up a lot. I’m not a huge fan of them. It seems that there is a spectrum of skills an engineer could exc
by tyleo 7y ago
I see these senior vs non-senior engineer contrasts pop up a lot. I’m not a huge fan of them.
It seems that there is a spectrum of skills an engineer could excel at: programming, infrastructure, managing, planning, etc. I’ve known senior engineers who only excel at a particular skill. I’ve also known senior engineers who are moderately good at many but not particularly good at one.
In my experience the only difference between a senior and non-senior is that the senior’s distribution of skills makes them more effective.
I’ve also seen senior engineers change roles laterally and become more or less effective, yet still maintain the senior title.
- ericlippert 7y agoWell then, feel free to write your own blog post on a topic you enjoy more!
- XelNika 7y agoI don't think he dislikes the topic, but rather the way it is framed as senior vs. junior instead of subject matter expert vs. non-expert. The skipto example from your post is not exemplary of the difference between a senior dev and a new grad, it seems very domain-specific.
- wwweston 7y agoAs a senior engineer who is proud of certain strengths and envious of different strengths I see in more often in others than myself, this seems pretty spot on to me.
- ksk 7y agoIf you accept the system that promotes an engineer into a senior position, there is no arguing that a senior engineer does posses skills that a junior doesn't. The junior is going to be evaluated in the same system.
- mcv 7y agoFor over a decade I've wondered whether or not I was good enough to call myself a senior. Now I know. But I also discovered that, to me at least, being senior is not about knowing how to optimise algorithms, or knowing the ins and outs of the compiler or any technical skill like that. I mean, I used to love algorithm optimisation 20, or even 10 years ago. Still do, I guess. But in most projects, there's little value in it. Value is in being able to carry a complex project to completion in a fairly goal-oriented manner. Having overview of what needs to be done, knowing what to spend your time on, understanding what the user needs and how to accomplish that. Getting juniors on board, and making sure we're all working on the same thing. Of course technical skills are relevant, but it's more about how and where to apply them then about the skills themselves.