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An interesting thing I've observed in Silicon Valley is that it is precisely the ability to navigate ambiguous problems, not years of experience with particular
by closeparen 4y ago
An interesting thing I've observed in Silicon Valley is that it is precisely the ability to navigate ambiguous problems, not years of experience with particular tools or domains, by which we define seniority. A junior engineer is someone you have to spell it out for. A senior engineer can be pointed in a loosely defined direction. A staff+ engineer can point themselves at the highest impact things.
- xyzelement 4y agoI think this is right, and I even think that some of what is often complained about in tech interviews is actually about testing for this. Folks say "give me a take-home assignment I can code on my own" rather than "stressfully whiteboard in a time-crunch in front of people" but I think they often don't understand that this scenario isn't meant to elicit your best code, but to evaluate how you perform in a scenario where everything isn't crisply handed over to you to digest on your own time. Dealing with ambiguity - and asking questions to quickly get to sufficient clarity - is a bit part of that (other elements include literally dealing with dynamic collaboration and a bit of pressure)