> Expectation: Once I become a senior, I will lead big projects, have a big impact, and tell others what to do!
> Reality: I miss the times when people told me what to do.
I’m very happy that I can just write code and do what I’m told on my current project — blessed with very strong collaborators. Being tech lead shaped person on a team and training/onboarding everyone is rewarding but draining, and it’s good to find ways to change it up.
what _is_ purely social and hasn't been discussed here is the role a senior developer takes in shielding the team from organizational corruption. that's a much harder and painful task, and while the former gets easier as the team develops trust, the latter never seems to
The rubber duck may be wise, for a duck at least, but there are limits to how much you can trust its opinion. In fact even the rubber duck appears more confident when it might at any time ally with co-workers.
Early career people just don't know how to make the right decisions yet. They need mentorship and help, that's expected and I'm happy to help as long as they're learning.
I hate it when I have to hold the hands of "seniors" though - often asking "what do you think?" or "what have you tried so far?" is enough to get them to do their jobs.
In recent times I had two encounters with colleagues, one a being bit less and the other than quite a bit more senior than me, where they both expressed such a sentiment.
One phrasing used was "I follow the ticket like a slave" and the other phrasing was "I do whatever $BOSS tells me to do". Not once in my career would I have uttered something like that.
But I realize that I was lucky that in my early career I got a lot of rather ambiguous (and also ambitious) tasks paired with more autonomy than my actual experience justified. Don't know how I would have turned out as an engineer if I had started in a company where I would have been expected to simply do what I've been told.
So it goes with engineering too. Sometimes (often?) I need to do something that’s not enjoyable in the short term to realize the best long path.
And as others pointed out, because if I refuse to, I'd likely eventually be let go.