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Comment by xupybd | Hacker News Reader

Is a senior really someone with 3 years experience now?

I'm 11 years in and think I'd only just qualify.

The senior title has no formal definition. Personally I don’t consider anyone with under 10 years of highly diversified experience to be senior. Any senior with less experience under their belt I assume their employer tossed the title at them in lieu of a raise.

The software industry in particular has gotten really lax with titles, to the point that they mean next to nothing.

I get a laugh imagining a kid just a few years out of school explaining to people that they’re a “senior software engineer”. Anyone on the outside would assume they’re either full of shit or some kind of Doogie Howser.

It's like "CEO" meaning they're the person responsible for anything. A senior engineer at a startup is the one expected to make sure engineering hits the deadlines.

Titles aren't exactly medals or certifications, they just denote who to blame.

I used to hesitate to call myself a senior dev, but I've come to realise it seems to be used just to refer to someone who can do their job without an excess amount of handholding.

Junior devs on the other hand tend to be developers with little to no experience with some of the core technologies used within the role. Typically they'll require some help from more senior devs to get up to speed.

I've been a developer for over 10 years at this point and I'm not really sure I feel like a senior dev. Every week I'm reminded how much I don't know. There's definitely a huge variance in the abilities of senior devs. Some of worked with are been terrible while others have been indispensable to the team. It's always bothered me that variance wasn't reflected in pay or title.

> I've come to realise it seems to be used just to refer to someone who can do their job without an excess amount of handholding.

Being competent enough to work independently is an extremely low bar for the distinction of being a senior in your field.

In most other industries that just means you’re not a trainee any longer.

For example my wife just entered the medical field doing administrative work. She’ll be a trainee for a full year. It will be a decade or more before she’ll be qualified to be in any sort of senior role.

I mean at the end of the day I don’t feel that strongly about it, but the problem is that when titles become meaningless it’s very hard to for example, communicate what role you’re hiring for, or who the right person to lead a new project is.

It varies from company to company and role to role.

This seems like more of a dig than a genuine question but assuming it is genuine... Here's what I'd say.

Where I work, time in the job doesn't necessarily correlate with career progression. It is dependent on continuously demonstrating impact, contributions to grow people, and direction. Someone in industry for 10+ years may not be qualified because of how senior is defined here, and similarly people with less time in the job very well might be qualified.

I was lucky early in my career to get enough mentorship to be able to get to that point. Maybe I would not be considered senior elsewhere because I haven't been in the job long enough, but at this workplace I am an L5.

Honestly not a dig, just surprised.

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