Ask HN: How do I assess my seniority level? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How do I assess my seniority level?

13 pointsSwiftyBug13 comments

Over the past four years, I've been dedicating myself to a startup where I'm the sole developer. There's a high likelihood that the company may not survive the next six months, so it seems that the time for me to start job hunting is approaching. However, I'm not entirely sure to what kind of role to apply. I understand that a senior position at a FAANG company is vastly different from a senior role at a small startup. But I'm not even certain whether I can categorize myself as a senior in a small startup. Before launching this company, I worked as a mid-level developer at a prominent tech company. It wasn't as big as FAANG, but it was a leader in its field in my country.

I realize that in some respects, not working within a team for a while may have set me back. However, on the flip side, I've gained a wealth of experience in many areas that I wouldn't have been exposed to in my previous role. Essentially, I now manage the full stack, whereas I previously had a more frontend-focused role. My experience has expanded more in breadth than in depth, although I believe it has grown significantly in both aspects.

How can I accurately assess where I currently stand in relation to the market level?

Maybe this Programmer Competency Matrix?

https://web.archive.org/web/20210105042643/http://www.starli...

It was discussed here (and probably elsewhere):

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4626695

Hiya! I'm a former VP Data in a large Fintech. We were using Progression for career path and "level up" assessment, thought it could be helpful for you.

It was also used by the engineering team and they have templates from FAANG companies to help you as well => https://progression.co/library/?tag=Engineering

Personally my approach to this is to simply not think about whether you fit all the labels perfectly. If you think you're able to do a job that's being advertised for then apply. If you're not senior enough that will become clear during the application process.

If you're able to provide value then a label like "senior" shouldn't matter. A company is not going to say, "well this guy is great, but hasn't got 3 years experience mentoring developers in a startup environment so isn't technically a 'senior'".

"Junior", "mid" & "senior", are mostly just used a high level filters to select for the type of candidates they're looking for. If you'd be great for role then you're doing the company a favour by applying.

For peace of mind, I've never had a single interview where someone has asked me to evidence why I'm applying for "senior" role. They're more interested in specifics like whether you've worked with junior developers before and how you work in a team with developers of differing skill levels.

From a personal perspective: What I've learned about free markets is, that you can usually find a match with every customer who agrees to accept what you offer. So if you apply to a senior position and someone accepts you as a match, there you go. We as a global industry don't really have an standard for career paths. At least I personally don't know any. Whereas being accepted as a senior, but only having 1 year of industry experience might be pretty rare though. So expect a correlation with documented years of experience though.

From what I learned in the European market is: Senior roles are expected to be able to independently reach quality results without too much extra attention/help from their direct management or technical team leaders. If you've been the sole developer for a long time in your space, chances are good, that you are already showing this capability. Even though when changing from a small/mid startup to an enterprise company this might change in a sudden, because now you are in a total different problem space an culture. Boundaries seem a bit fluent or fuzzy here from my personal POV.

On an extra many companies seem to categorize personal into senior tier, when then additionally are able to hand down the torch on knowledge down to the more junior levels, to enable them doing their work better than before.

Source: Working in tech since 2000, 10 years of dev/arch consulting with different companies, right now software architect in a starting to scale mid size organisation, mentoring juniors and seniors.

Hope it helps. Wish you all the best.

> Senior roles are expected to be able to independently reach quality results without too much extra attention/help from their direct management or technical team leaders.

I'd add that in a number companies this is more of a mid-level role, with senior level having significant impact within the team and some impact outside (like driving initiatives involving other teams). It is difficult to show this after working solo for a while, and some companies might not know how to approach it and drop candidates with experience like that. I guess one angle to address this would be to show how you worked on longer-term projects and coordinating with founders/whoever.

>How can I accurately assess where I currently stand in relation to the market level?

If you want to apply to big companies, you don't really need to. You can apply to senior positions, talk to recruiters, explain your situation, and get 'leveled' in the interview.

If you want to apply to smaller companies, well, then it's a bit more of a crapshoot, but if they only have one position open then you might as well apply to whatever they have open if it seems reasonable.

While in a startup breath is desirable, in a big company it will set you back. Of course, it depends on the hiring manager, but they have better resources than a single person for diversifying the collective skillset.

It is similar to pitching your startup, you don’t say I have many products to convince them that you have a better chance. On the contrary, you’d be implying that you can do their job better than them.

Don't people turn senior in FAANGs super quick? Like within 5 years

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