> So, just eat healthy, do some sports, and get older.
On the contrary, smoke as many cigarettes as you can in a day, have a whole bottle of whiskey every day, only eat fried foods, and sleep on your face. Within just a few months, you should have the look of seniority! It's all about finding shortcuts up the corporate ladder.
My comment was a sort of provocation, but I see that some people seem to agree with it. It makes me a bit sad, but unfortunately sometimes it's pretty hard to change things - if at all!
The other comments are all relevant and very good, but they seem to overlook one important aspect: the company's attitude. What all those comments have in common is that they assume things work according to Tom DeMarco's book Peopleware. I have learnt on my own experience that they don't. I have had the chance to work with 1)poisonous, 2)negative, 3)defensive (see the psychological meaning), and 4)offensive (... no psychology needed here) senior developers. Some nicer/more experienced than others, no doubts, sometimes also due to the lack of communication skills (English is not everyone's first language, and I do understand it). However, these ones were senior due to the number of years spent in the company OR their age. That's why I think that the companies that value someone's skills (I like to see them like technical skills, IQ and EQ) for their promotions are the minority.
Yeah, as I read many comments in this thread I'm left thinking that either these people are very naive or I'm severely jaded (or both). But the notion of work hard and you'll be rewarded is kind of silly when you're working as an engineer at MegaCorp.
I think if you're in a small company things could be different.
> What all those comments have in common is that they assume things work according to Tom DeMarco's book Peopleware.
This is a funny comment, since he keeps repeating through the entire book phrases that sound like "you probably won't be able to get this for your team", "you likely never seen it anywhere, but...", "when doing our research, we've seen this. You might doubt it, but trust me, this exist on some places."
> This is a funny comment, since he keeps repeating through the entire book phrases that sound like ...
Yeah, I know. Of course I meant "things work according to the advises given by the book ..." or something like that. I read the book, and everybody agrees that "it's a great book, but in reality...".
I used to work for MegaCorp and I was only a number there. In that company you could become "senior" only if you was grey (literally) or know somebody higher in the structure. That was one of reasons I left to join startup.
