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Here's the best take I've read on the subject, by John Allspaw of Etsy: http://www.kitchensoap.com/2012/10/25/on-being-a-senior-engineer/ http://www.kitchensoap

by jraines 13y ago

Here's the best take I've read on the subject, by John Allspaw of Etsy: http://www.kitchensoap.com/2012/10/25/on-being-a-senior-engineer/ http://www.kitchensoap.com/2012/10/25/on-being-a-senior-engi... Choice quote: "I expect a “senior” engineer to be a mature engineer." He elaborates at length about what that means in the post.

jgable 13y ago
Doh! You posted that link while I was writing up my response. Fantastic essay.
angersock 13y ago
That is an utterly fantastic article. One thing I'd like to add is that a senior engineer works to build a culture and team where anyone--especially themselves--is replaceable. If you document your high-level thinking, if you break projects into lots of small manageable chunks, and make sure that at least one or two other people know everything you know, you will find that progress is a lot faster and that lots of bottlenecks magically disappear. And ironically, for working to make yourself replaceable, you will probably find that you are treated better.
- cpeterso 13y ago
  Absolutely. If you're not replaceable, then you won't be able to take on cool new opportunities without leaving your team on a lurch. Always be automating yourself out of your own job and mentoring your successor.
- analog31 13y ago
  At times in my career, I've hesitated to do exactly this due to fear of being replaceable. Yet every time I've given up a cool responsibility, I've been rewarded with something even cooler. So I've learned to never fear making myself obsolete.
  - angersock 13y ago
    So, the way I look at it (paradoxical as it sounds): If somebody is not replaceable (and hence a potential bottleneck), they are by definition a risk. Therefore, it is in everyone's best interest to replace them and the system that enabled them, in order to harden everything against bad luck. The cowboy coder who wrote most of the MVP in PHP in a month, for example, should be replaced forthwith if she can't document her work and get the rest of the team up to speed--if for no other reason than that she is a liability as the team grows and more things depend on her not failing. It's kind of a counter-intuitive way of looking at it, but it makes sense.
ryanobjc 13y ago
I particularly like this one: "Mature engineers are empathetic" Which to me means that most engineers are not mature, and not senior. Considering how much poor behavior I've seen by so-called "Sr" engineers I am hardly surprised. In a world where people are infrequently called to answer for their anti-social behavior directly, of course it will continue. Ultimately I blame the internets for that. Cant easily have empathy online, no emotional feedback loop.

by jraines 13y ago

jgable 13y ago

Doh! You posted that link while I was writing up my response. Fantastic essay.

angersock 13y ago

That is an utterly fantastic article. One thing I'd like to add is that a senior engineer works to build a culture and team where anyone--especially themselves--is replaceable. If you document your high-level thinking, if you break projects into lots of small manageable chunks, and make sure that at least one or two other people know everything you know, you will find that progress is a lot faster and that lots of bottlenecks magically disappear. And ironically, for working to make yourself replaceable, you will probably find that you are treated better.

cpeterso 13y ago
Absolutely. If you're not replaceable, then you won't be able to take on cool new opportunities without leaving your team on a lurch. Always be automating yourself out of your own job and mentoring your successor.
analog31 13y ago
At times in my career, I've hesitated to do exactly this due to fear of being replaceable. Yet every time I've given up a cool responsibility, I've been rewarded with something even cooler. So I've learned to never fear making myself obsolete.
- angersock 13y ago
  So, the way I look at it (paradoxical as it sounds): If somebody is not replaceable (and hence a potential bottleneck), they are by definition a risk. Therefore, it is in everyone's best interest to replace them and the system that enabled them, in order to harden everything against bad luck. The cowboy coder who wrote most of the MVP in PHP in a month, for example, should be replaced forthwith if she can't document her work and get the rest of the team up to speed--if for no other reason than that she is a liability as the team grows and more things depend on her not failing. It's kind of a counter-intuitive way of looking at it, but it makes sense.

ryanobjc 13y ago

I particularly like this one: "Mature engineers are empathetic" Which to me means that most engineers are not mature, and not senior. Considering how much poor behavior I've seen by so-called "Sr" engineers I am hardly surprised. In a world where people are infrequently called to answer for their anti-social behavior directly, of course it will continue. Ultimately I blame the internets for that. Cant easily have empathy online, no emotional feedback loop.