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What is a senior developer anyways? I am a around developer, but even after 20 years I see people around me much better than I am. Still I managed to setup mult

What is a senior developer anyways? I am a around developer, but even after 20 years I see people around me much better than I am. Still I managed to setup multiple companies quite succesfully. But am I a typical senior developer? No I am not. I am quite mediocre.

revskill 4y ago
A senior developer is one who can read, write and TEST their own code in an automatic way.
- matwood 4y ago
  So I was a senior dev day 1 some 20+ years ago :D
- forrestthewoods 4y ago
  I do not think you will find many people who agree with this definition. Reading, writing, and testing your own code is entry level. That’s most basic of basics. My favorite definition of senior was “someone who can jump into any system in the project, including parts they aren’t familiar with, to diagnose and fix any issue”. That’s a little unfair for extremely large projects, but it’s pretty close. Alternatively, senior developers are given vague problems and it’s up them to design, implement, and own solutions. Staff/principle, and to less extent senior, devs are also responsibly for wisely identifying what problems even need to be solved.
  - mod 4y ago
    I believe I meet your two definitions, but probably not that of the guy you responded to. I mean I CAN write tests, and I have on a some particular projects, but it was the exception, not the rule. I'm not trying to ruffle any feathers--I'm not anti-testing or anything. I just never worked somewhere it was part of the culture. Just small shops getting stuff done. Anyway I don't feel particularly knowledgeable about testing. I encountered a lot of situations (in web dev) where I didn't know how to mock responses and stuff like that, and couldn't get coverage in some spots. But I debugged complex bugs in foreign systems a lot. I was the go-to guy at one shop for that. Full stack dev, and solo for most of them, so I got to design and implement my own solutions. Discover my own complexity, debug my own bugs. I think I've probably built, and at least temporarily maintained, at least 15-20 rails apps, and there's countless non-rails apps. Many of them are still up ~5-10 years later, just how I built them. 23 years coding, per the author of this piece, but only 5 years of getting paid for it. A generalist in the web world, but little experience outside of web. Anyway, all that to say, I have no idea if I'm senior or not. I've never been called it. The metrics are not clear (or consistent) and I feel like maybe it's impostor syndrome to NOT call myself senior, but maybe I'm actually not. I don't know! This also may be partially due to being self-taught. I have gaps in my knowledge that just reflect my own experience, rather than that of a curriculum. I'll report back if I ever get more professional experience.
    - forrestthewoods 4y ago
      I’ve got 15 years paid experience. I’ve never worked on a single project that had significant unit tests. But I’ve mostly worked in 3D games where unit tests are exceedingly difficult for anything beyond utility libraries. There’s no standard definition of “senior”. Hell, most companies internally don’t even have a clear definition! At a lot of places you can reach “senior” in just 3 to 5 years. Suffice to say not all seniors are equivalent. And that’s fine. All titles are arbitrary and made up.
pull_my_finger 4y ago
I think a lot of companies arbitrarily inflate/misuse/invent titles for their own purpose. I saw EngiineeringLadders[1] here on HN that I can appreciate for it's attempt to quantify things a little more clearly. [1]: http://www.engineeringladders.com/ http://www.engineeringladders.com/
- mikewarot 4y ago
  I was the Manager of Information Systems at my old company. So, the computer guy who kept the exchange server running, set up workstations, basically the entire IT department. Our sales people were Senior Account Executives, because nobody would talk to sales people. Title inflation is real. My friend Diane's card read "Queen of the Universe" ;-)
weatherlite 4y ago
It's a word we put before our title to get more money...
t-3 4y ago
> But am I a typical senior developer? No I am not. I am quite mediocre. Actually, that's what's mediocre means. Outstanding people are not typical.

revskill 4y ago

A senior developer is one who can read, write and TEST their own code in an automatic way.

matwood 4y ago
So I was a senior dev day 1 some 20+ years ago :D
forrestthewoods 4y ago
I do not think you will find many people who agree with this definition. Reading, writing, and testing your own code is entry level. That’s most basic of basics. My favorite definition of senior was “someone who can jump into any system in the project, including parts they aren’t familiar with, to diagnose and fix any issue”. That’s a little unfair for extremely large projects, but it’s pretty close. Alternatively, senior developers are given vague problems and it’s up them to design, implement, and own solutions. Staff/principle, and to less extent senior, devs are also responsibly for wisely identifying what problems even need to be solved.
- mod 4y ago
  I believe I meet your two definitions, but probably not that of the guy you responded to. I mean I CAN write tests, and I have on a some particular projects, but it was the exception, not the rule. I'm not trying to ruffle any feathers--I'm not anti-testing or anything. I just never worked somewhere it was part of the culture. Just small shops getting stuff done. Anyway I don't feel particularly knowledgeable about testing. I encountered a lot of situations (in web dev) where I didn't know how to mock responses and stuff like that, and couldn't get coverage in some spots. But I debugged complex bugs in foreign systems a lot. I was the go-to guy at one shop for that. Full stack dev, and solo for most of them, so I got to design and implement my own solutions. Discover my own complexity, debug my own bugs. I think I've probably built, and at least temporarily maintained, at least 15-20 rails apps, and there's countless non-rails apps. Many of them are still up ~5-10 years later, just how I built them. 23 years coding, per the author of this piece, but only 5 years of getting paid for it. A generalist in the web world, but little experience outside of web. Anyway, all that to say, I have no idea if I'm senior or not. I've never been called it. The metrics are not clear (or consistent) and I feel like maybe it's impostor syndrome to NOT call myself senior, but maybe I'm actually not. I don't know! This also may be partially due to being self-taught. I have gaps in my knowledge that just reflect my own experience, rather than that of a curriculum. I'll report back if I ever get more professional experience.
  - forrestthewoods 4y ago
    I’ve got 15 years paid experience. I’ve never worked on a single project that had significant unit tests. But I’ve mostly worked in 3D games where unit tests are exceedingly difficult for anything beyond utility libraries. There’s no standard definition of “senior”. Hell, most companies internally don’t even have a clear definition! At a lot of places you can reach “senior” in just 3 to 5 years. Suffice to say not all seniors are equivalent. And that’s fine. All titles are arbitrary and made up.

pull_my_finger 4y ago

I think a lot of companies arbitrarily inflate/misuse/invent titles for their own purpose. I saw EngiineeringLadders[1] here on HN that I can appreciate for it's attempt to quantify things a little more clearly. [1]: http://www.engineeringladders.com/ http://www.engineeringladders.com/

mikewarot 4y ago
I was the Manager of Information Systems at my old company. So, the computer guy who kept the exchange server running, set up workstations, basically the entire IT department. Our sales people were Senior Account Executives, because nobody would talk to sales people. Title inflation is real. My friend Diane's card read "Queen of the Universe" ;-)

weatherlite 4y ago

It's a word we put before our title to get more money...

t-3 4y ago

> But am I a typical senior developer? No I am not. I am quite mediocre. Actually, that's what's mediocre means. Outstanding people are not typical.