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I have found that there is very little difference between a senior, junior and even intern engineer. The responsabilities are the same, but a senior generally c

I have found that there is very little difference between a senior, junior and even intern engineer. The responsabilities are the same, but a senior generally completes tasks faster and is paid more. The same JIRA tickets. It is not until you get to a lead/architect level that the responsabilities change. The system building comes into focus.

Test0129 4y ago
Yeah this has also been my experience more or less. Senior engineers do get some tasks (scope the work, design the implementation, etc) but generally "building systems" is in the purview of the principals and architects. I've had some companies that let seniors do more as they get closer to their next rank but generally these opportunities are fairly isolated and triple checked by the actual shot callers. At senior you're still a code monkey. Just typically very experienced and capable of managing a small team of juniors. > To them, creating software is just one of the steps. First of all, they question whether the software needs to be built in the first place. They ask what problems would it solve and why it’s important to solve them. They inquire who will be using the software and on what scale. They think about where the software would run and how they’re going to monitor whether it’s working properly. They also decide how to measure whether the software is actually solving the problems it was supposed to solve. Based on this definition I would suggest the author is using "senior" as a modifier to include all positions above junior rather than the typical titling. Moreover, the amount of times I've been given any time at all to actually think about the system things will run on, or how we will determine if it's performant, I can count on one hand. If this is the author's experience he is very lucky to have a company that cares about end-to-end performance.
didibus 4y ago
I believe the article was using Senior Engineer as equivalent to lead/architect, because at big tech companies like Google or Amazon, that's what a Senior Engineer is, they act effectively as team lead/project lead, and as team(or multiple teams) level architect. When you become senior at those companies you also start to report directly to the skip level.
2rsf 4y ago
It really differs between companies, and sometimes even teams within one company. If anything a senior engineer will complete tasks better rather than faster by having a wider and deeper understanding of the system.

Test0129 4y ago

Yeah this has also been my experience more or less. Senior engineers do get some tasks (scope the work, design the implementation, etc) but generally "building systems" is in the purview of the principals and architects. I've had some companies that let seniors do more as they get closer to their next rank but generally these opportunities are fairly isolated and triple checked by the actual shot callers. At senior you're still a code monkey. Just typically very experienced and capable of managing a small team of juniors. > To them, creating software is just one of the steps. First of all, they question whether the software needs to be built in the first place. They ask what problems would it solve and why it’s important to solve them. They inquire who will be using the software and on what scale. They think about where the software would run and how they’re going to monitor whether it’s working properly. They also decide how to measure whether the software is actually solving the problems it was supposed to solve. Based on this definition I would suggest the author is using "senior" as a modifier to include all positions above junior rather than the typical titling. Moreover, the amount of times I've been given any time at all to actually think about the system things will run on, or how we will determine if it's performant, I can count on one hand. If this is the author's experience he is very lucky to have a company that cares about end-to-end performance.

didibus 4y ago

I believe the article was using Senior Engineer as equivalent to lead/architect, because at big tech companies like Google or Amazon, that's what a Senior Engineer is, they act effectively as team lead/project lead, and as team(or multiple teams) level architect. When you become senior at those companies you also start to report directly to the skip level.

2rsf 4y ago

It really differs between companies, and sometimes even teams within one company. If anything a senior engineer will complete tasks better rather than faster by having a wider and deeper understanding of the system.