on-becoming-a-senior-dev

On Becoming a Senior Dev

I do hope that we are able to go through life, building upon our achievements or leveling it up as the cool kids say. It was pretty clear from the start of our session that the shared idea that experience outweighs the title. Some companies don't use the titles. They may have some other creative titles. But when companies do use it, it can also have a correlation to your salary. But if you want to be called a Senior Dev, don't hesitate to ask for the title and take action to position yourself in the direction you want to go.

We also established that just for the purpose of discord, we will use terms like Junior and Senior as language that differentiates whom we are referring to.

First, we need to recognize that the role comes with added responsibilities. Be someone who continues to strive for the betterment of the code base. At the same time be humble enough to learn from your mistakes, The willingness to make mistakes reflects on your effort in problem solving.

New Role Specific Tasks:

• You may be doing more "Mentoring" as a continued effort to Knowledge sharing.
• You be dedicating more time into investigating technicals solutions.
• You'll most certainly will have to take ownership and be more accountability.
• It helps if you have strong opinions.
• But at the same time you need to remain approachable.
• And it's good to always be open to new ideas.

Expectations From Others:

• To responsible for the role. It's just about the title and pay.
• To challenge technical decisions.
• You will be expected to be able to communicate with the customer.
• You'll be the one with a higher perspective of code base.
• Spend more time analyze technical solutions to form a well-though-out opinion.
• But you are still not expected to know everything.

Actions To Take Now

• Participate Bar Camps. (JSCC counts! you're on your way!)
• Network with other developers.
• Give back to the community.
• Don't be afraid to ask questions.
• Join an open-source project.
• Ask for more responsibilities.
• Start spec'n your tickets. (Expand on what you are given)

Thank you to all who participated. I am so grateful for the feedback and I wish you the very best as you continue to grow and learn. Enjoy the challenge!