
Ask HN: When did you can consider yourself as senior software engineer? - merbot
Every job opening mostly says &#x27;Hiring Senior Software Engineer&#x27;, when you consider yourself qualified with this title?
======
mindvirus
My bar for a senior engineer is someone who can independently drive a large (1
quarter-ish) project to completion with high quality, acting primarily as an
IC. They're someone I can throw at a problem and get it solved. They'll by and
large get themselves unblocked when stuck - asking questions, talking to
stakeholders, etc. They can decompose problems so that other less senior
engineers on the team can execute on different parts of them efficiently.

~~~
byebyetech
Hmm so who is a tech lead?

------
zerr
Forget titles - if you [more or less] qualify for the job description, i.e.
think you're able to handle the duties mentioned, apply.

------
flapjackfritz
I don't know about other companies, but here's a generalised description of
officially what a senior software engineer does.

\- Relevant tertiary qualification \- min 5 years experience \- long list of
proficiency relevant to particular area of work \- Proven ability to take a
lead role in the design and development of a feature from start to completion
\- Establish technical feasibility of assigned projects \- Uses diagramming
appropriately to convey technical details and features \- Create, Document,
Maintain technical design approaches \- Mentor other developers \- Lead
debugging investigations and report results \- Present results of research and
investigation, to team meetings, or at conferences, etc.

\+ Everything a normal/jr dev does

I think it's a pretty good/comprehensive definition, and it seems clear enough
to me in my work environment.

------
staunch
I think it's after developing and running a few real world large systems over
the course of years. I was an extremely technical "junior" engineer, and I
often knew things that "senior" engineers didn't, but there really is no
substitute for real world experience over time.

It's a bit like how life works in general. You "level up" every 7-10 years and
look back at how "dumb" you were previously. After a few cycles of this you
get to a point where you're an "adult" in most of the ways that matter.

A relevant quote from @KentBeck really nails the value of experience:

 _" first you learn the value of abstraction, then you learn the cost of
abstraction, then you're ready to engineer"_

------
mabynogy
Never. It doesn't belong to me. It's an HR and job market paradigm word. I
avoid that like the plague as it's a beauty contest.

------
1ba9115454
I would say a minimum of 3 years.

I'd find it hard to believe you were senior if you had less than that.

~~~
raztogt21
I'd consider seniors with a minimum 5 years

------
zn44
when people you consider senior come to you for advice

------
marktangotango
When you solve their bugs for them, instead of them helping you with yours.

------
techjuice
Generally in large enterprise businesses Senior engineers are normally
individual contributors that can independently architect, design, secure,
scale, deploy, maintain and close out individual small to medium size programs
normally in the thousand to possible low double digit million dollar value
range. They will normally interact with other employees, vendors and stake
holders in their business unit to achieve goals. Their documentation, CI/CD
are normally very in-depth and high quality (95% code documented, user,
developer, admin manuals, product slides, etc). Mistakes made by the Senior
Engineer may cause loss of revenue due to individual program failures or loss
of employees on the team, normally these issues can be recovered from within a
short period of time. These engineers may serve as a tech lead and report to a
Principal/Senior Principal or Managers for their program. They will also
normally help with interviews and some current program planning and proposals
for new programs. You may also be in meetings related to your program or
office.

Principal/Senior Principal software engineers are also individual contributors
that normally do what senior engineers do, but are normally trusted to deal
with engineering and technical management of the larger multi-high double to
hundred million or billion dollar enterprise national and international scale
programs due to having a large history of successful programs experience (e.g.
10 years minimum normally that are critical core business programs). If they
make mistakes it can normally causes grave problems to the entire organization
that may not be recoverable, multiple closures or high revenue losses across
multiple programs. These engineers normally report to C-Suite Executives, and
Senior Management, they may also have managers under them. They will normally
also provide general and in-depth documentation and training for multiple
programs and mentor senior and junior engineers. They will normally write
proposals, presentations, BoMs and write job descriptions for multiple program
staffing requirements for the company and may serve as program(s) managers or
in a supervisory capacity. You will normally be in meetings about multiple
programs under you for multiple offices and working on future business
programs in the 5 to 10 year range.

There are also normally Fellows grade employees in companies and these
individual contributors may service as strictly long term technical business
development or program review and sustainment types. They normally have the
around 5 to 10 years working as a Principal or Senior Principal engineers but
focus more on the technical business side (think more program management with
technical skills for future programs). They may also help with the larger
enterprise wide programs and normally report to C-Suite Executives or Senior
Leadership. You will normally be in meetings helping gather information about
programs under your for multiple offices and very long term future business
endeavors 10 to 20 years.

