Comment by wiseowise
14 hours ago
Can someone who worked in multiple industries clarify: is it only software that has constant identity crisis with "what makes you X" and "what is expected of Y"?
The only thing that makes a senior are years of experience, that's all. You can be a shitty senior if you only do one thing for 10 years, but you're a senior nonetheless.
Actually it's not even years of experience, I've seen grads with 2 yrs experience promoted to Senior with a minor raise because otherwise they might leave the company.
Licensed professionals don't have identity crises, their titles and what is required of them is legally enforced. The software industry has never lobbied for the interests of "engineers", the way other professions have (taxi drivers, barbers, plumbers, real estate agents, etc formed professional groups which lobbied for laws requiring official licensing). I think it's because software developers are the laziest people on the planet, and they are happy to continue doing almost nothing in order to get hired.
(I support licensing)
Licensing never happened because its effect is to reduce the size of the labor pool and restrict what the labor pool can do as individuals. Barring the very recent abberation of the glut of new grads and not enough junior positions, even without licensing, there haven't been enough engineers to fill all the open senior-level positions. Licensure would make that problem worse.
A licensure board would also get embroiled in political disputes over what is genuinely ethical. Python is a performance nightmare, should engineers be permitted to pick a language with known poor performance characteristics? Electron is a RAM hog and battery-killer, is it an ethical choice? So how could any Python or Electron shop support licensure?
Isn't a comp-sci degree the barely relevant "license" in IT?
I think you’re being a little pedantic here. Even if we assume "senior" is an arbitrary title, the article is still a useful description for how to be effective as an experienced engineer. The title is the least interesting part of it.
It’s only useful if you consider a single anecdote useful. For every OP’s example I can come up with at least 2 where you follow their advice and it goes south, most likely there are thousands engineers who can do the same.
It’s a typical pat on the back/confirmation bias article so whoever identifies with this specific opinion can feel good and close the tab with “yeah, I’m a real senior”.
What if your company has you doing the job of a senior without the pay (because all the actual seniors left)?
If you have contacts on the seniors who have left, call them, ask them if they like the companies they are currently working for, and whether the companies are looking for new hires.
In the job interview, give them the list of responsibilities that you have now. Then ask for a higher salary than you have now.
Jump ship. You'll forever be bargaining for the pay rise and if you do get it and don't deliver for whatever reason you'll end up shooting yourself in the foot. As the recent justification was for more pay.
I was a teacher, and I didn't notice anything similar. It's just a job -- if you can do it, you can do it. You can be more experienced, you can be more comfortable with solving certain problems, you can do it better or worse, but there is not... this.
Some software developers seem to be in a lifelong dick-measuring contest. "You are not a true X unless you know this one important thing that I know." Okay dude, now do you expect Miss Teacher to come and praise you for how clever you are? You know some things that others don't, perhaps the others know some things that you don't, why is the former important for being a true X and the latter is not.
In software engineering, "senior" or not usually means you can be trusted to take on certain problems vs. others.
In US primary school (an industry I've never worked in), this might be close to something like teacher, curriculum planner, assistant principal, principal, district supervisor, etc.
As you progress further in your field and hone your skills and knowledge, the scope and impact of your responsibilities should grow.