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I don't see why a senior dev does not have broad skills that apply across companies?

bluGill 2y ago
You will have specific skills related to your industry. There are weird issues in every niche that you build up as you spend time in that niche. Senior devs from outside almost always don't have that.
ang_cire 2y ago
I think the rule is more that a senior dev will have picked up specialized knowledge that they themselves will target in their job applications, because specialized knowledge positions pay more. So while they may also have the generic skills that could get them hired into an unspecialized role, they're likely not applying for those.
- mystified5016 2y ago
  You're just repeating the same assertion that senior devs are specialists, which is not true. Not all generalists choose to, or even can specialize. They don't cease to exist once they've accrued enough experience. Nor does having a lot of experience mean you're specialized in any one thing. You can be senior, have loads of experience, and still be a generalist.
  - ang_cire 2y ago
    I'm not saying they secretly are working as specialists, I'm saying that knowledge accrual is never perfectly even across skills. Whatever company you work at has their specific set of tools, and the longer you work on them the more you'll know about those tools (i.e. have specialized knowledge), and not the tools in other shops. And even within that list, you'll know more about some of those tools than others. At a certain point, you would be capable of fulfilling a specialist role in those tools, whether you choose to apply for one or not. When people say specialists, what they mean is SMEs hired to do one specific, specialized role. You can be an SME in something and be hired into a generalist role, or a generalist hired into a specialist role. Whether you are a specialist or a generalist is down to your job role, not your skills. An SME in e.g. reverse engineering who quit IT and now runs a llama farm/ cafe (the dream) is not an RE specialist, they're a llama farmer.

You will have specific skills related to your industry. There are weird issues in every niche that you build up as you spend time in that niche. Senior devs from outside almost always don't have that.

ang_cire 2y ago

I think the rule is more that a senior dev will have picked up specialized knowledge that they themselves will target in their job applications, because specialized knowledge positions pay more. So while they may also have the generic skills that could get them hired into an unspecialized role, they're likely not applying for those.

mystified5016 2y ago
You're just repeating the same assertion that senior devs are specialists, which is not true. Not all generalists choose to, or even can specialize. They don't cease to exist once they've accrued enough experience. Nor does having a lot of experience mean you're specialized in any one thing. You can be senior, have loads of experience, and still be a generalist.
- ang_cire 2y ago
  I'm not saying they secretly are working as specialists, I'm saying that knowledge accrual is never perfectly even across skills. Whatever company you work at has their specific set of tools, and the longer you work on them the more you'll know about those tools (i.e. have specialized knowledge), and not the tools in other shops. And even within that list, you'll know more about some of those tools than others. At a certain point, you would be capable of fulfilling a specialist role in those tools, whether you choose to apply for one or not. When people say specialists, what they mean is SMEs hired to do one specific, specialized role. You can be an SME in something and be hired into a generalist role, or a generalist hired into a specialist role. Whether you are a specialist or a generalist is down to your job role, not your skills. An SME in e.g. reverse engineering who quit IT and now runs a llama farm/ cafe (the dream) is not an RE specialist, they're a llama farmer.