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To start with, "Senior" and related titles basically mean a person who doesn't need much hand-holding. This might be related to time spent, but often you find t

To start with, "Senior" and related titles basically mean a person who doesn't need much hand-holding. This might be related to time spent, but often you find there's a lot of variation. People I consider senior software engineers have a can-do-anything vibe about them. They have a wide range of skills in the field, and have that T-shaped experience profile: there's some area they seem to know everything about, and then they somehow are able to say something sensible about a whole lot of other areas. For instance I worked with a guy who wrote financial exchanges but could also write a modern front-end, understood how kubernetes worked, and knew a fair bit about databases. You couldn't throw out a term that he couldn't place (X is a language / framework / pattern / OSS project), and you couldn't come up with a problem that he didn't know the closest well-known adjacency for. That's a vague outline of what I think a senior dev is. To get there is a long story. I think you need the good fortune of not being siloed in something very specific or superficial. That might even include having the "good fortune" of being forced to change jobs a few times. You also need some luck in your personal life to be able to explore a bunch of stuff in your own time, plus some funds (probably less relevant today where everything is an online service).

bradleyjg 6y ago
It’s not just knowing how to do a bunch of things. No one can do everything. It’s the attitude and meta-skills that enable picking up the next new thing.
- lordnacho 6y ago
  Same thing, isn't it? At the end of the day the guy who can do anything you ask him to is going to do it by learning, not by knowing already.
mettamage 6y ago
> People I consider senior software engineers have a can-do-anything vibe about them. I feel I can do anything as well, because if I can't then I will simply find a way to learn it, because to me it's not a question of whether I'm capable of learning it but how fast I'm capable of learning it. So I'd be careful with that vibe as a heuristic ;-)
- simsla 6y ago
  In my experience, it's more a mark of "do do" than "can do". i.e. how far along are you in the progression of... - being given clearly defined tasks - self-guided work on feature level - self-guided work on project level - self-guided work on team level - self-guided work across teams etc.
greggman3 6y ago
My experience is people in "senior" roles are more often than not people who pushed to be put in those roles regardless of how much experience they may or may not have. I know people placed in "senior" roles at 19-21yrs old. I'm not saying age is a qualifier but in this case it was clear they didn't have any special skills. But once they were given the role it carried them through their career. With the title on their resume they continually got hired and higher and higher levels.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
Ensorceled 6y ago
> To start with, "Senior" and related titles basically mean a person who doesn't need much hand-holding. This is my definition. Can I assign the PROBLEM, "important customer ABC has some kind of weird bug, talk to Nav in Tech Support" and know that problem is now off my plate. They'll usually solve it or come back with a hot fix recommendation. Worse case, they come back with a "we can't figure it out, we need more eyes on this". The important part is this: the problem is now something I don't need to worry about. If I need to follow up, they're not a senior developer. They're a junior with skills.
UncleMeat 6y ago
> To start with, "Senior" and related titles basically mean a person who doesn't need much hand-holding. I'd call this "not junior". To me, "senior" would be the person leading a small multi-person effort or doing the hand-holding of junior engineers.
- KptMarchewa 6y ago
  Usually leading engineer is called "Lead Engineer", which is step over Senior.
  - UncleMeat 6y ago
    Of a small group? I'd ordinarily expect a "lead engineer" title to be overseeing 6-20 people.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - ecnahc515 6y ago
      Not op, but I’d call what they’re referring to as a team lead. Usually a team lead manages 3-6 people, isn’t a manager, but is a senior engineer and has technical leadership abilities.
bavcyc 6y ago
I'm more familiar with EE levels. From OPM: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/classifying-general-schedule-positions/functional-guides/gsequpdv.pdf https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qua... and if you can find: POSITION CLASSIFICATION STANDARD FOR ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING SERIES, GS-0850 ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING SERIES, GS-0855 TS-3 February 1971 It has good information on what level engineers are working. I think you have the correct frame of reference, senior level positions are those who are used to handling projects/questions without guidance from others (although most senior folks are willing to ask questions to learn)

bradleyjg 6y ago

It’s not just knowing how to do a bunch of things. No one can do everything. It’s the attitude and meta-skills that enable picking up the next new thing.

lordnacho 6y ago
Same thing, isn't it? At the end of the day the guy who can do anything you ask him to is going to do it by learning, not by knowing already.

mettamage 6y ago

> People I consider senior software engineers have a can-do-anything vibe about them. I feel I can do anything as well, because if I can't then I will simply find a way to learn it, because to me it's not a question of whether I'm capable of learning it but how fast I'm capable of learning it. So I'd be careful with that vibe as a heuristic ;-)

simsla 6y ago
In my experience, it's more a mark of "do do" than "can do". i.e. how far along are you in the progression of... - being given clearly defined tasks - self-guided work on feature level - self-guided work on project level - self-guided work on team level - self-guided work across teams etc.

greggman3 6y ago

My experience is people in "senior" roles are more often than not people who pushed to be put in those roles regardless of how much experience they may or may not have. I know people placed in "senior" roles at 19-21yrs old. I'm not saying age is a qualifier but in this case it was clear they didn't have any special skills. But once they were given the role it carried them through their career. With the title on their resume they continually got hired and higher and higher levels.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

Ensorceled 6y ago

> To start with, "Senior" and related titles basically mean a person who doesn't need much hand-holding. This is my definition. Can I assign the PROBLEM, "important customer ABC has some kind of weird bug, talk to Nav in Tech Support" and know that problem is now off my plate. They'll usually solve it or come back with a hot fix recommendation. Worse case, they come back with a "we can't figure it out, we need more eyes on this". The important part is this: the problem is now something I don't need to worry about. If I need to follow up, they're not a senior developer. They're a junior with skills.

UncleMeat 6y ago

> To start with, "Senior" and related titles basically mean a person who doesn't need much hand-holding. I'd call this "not junior". To me, "senior" would be the person leading a small multi-person effort or doing the hand-holding of junior engineers.

KptMarchewa 6y ago
Usually leading engineer is called "Lead Engineer", which is step over Senior.
- UncleMeat 6y ago
  Of a small group? I'd ordinarily expect a "lead engineer" title to be overseeing 6-20 people.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - ecnahc515 6y ago
    Not op, but I’d call what they’re referring to as a team lead. Usually a team lead manages 3-6 people, isn’t a manager, but is a senior engineer and has technical leadership abilities.

bavcyc 6y ago

I'm more familiar with EE levels. From OPM: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/classifying-general-schedule-positions/functional-guides/gsequpdv.pdf https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qua... and if you can find: POSITION CLASSIFICATION STANDARD FOR ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING SERIES, GS-0850 ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING SERIES, GS-0855 TS-3 February 1971 It has good information on what level engineers are working. I think you have the correct frame of reference, senior level positions are those who are used to handling projects/questions without guidance from others (although most senior folks are willing to ask questions to learn)