Vox

Leitura de 9 min

3x3 - Misconceptions About Senior Engineers

Summary

In this episode of Developer Tea, host Jonathan Cottrell addresses three widespread misconceptions surrounding the title of ‘senior engineer.’ He begins by sharing personal news about the birth of his daughter, Nova, before diving into the core discussion aimed at providing clarity for developers’ careers.

The first misconception Cottrell tackles is the idea that senior engineers primarily solve highly technical problems in isolation. He argues that this is an inaccurate portrayal; instead, senior engineers often work alongside team members and focus on contextual challenges, such as understanding legacy decisions and fitting components together efficiently, rather than writing complex algorithms.

Next, he dispels the notion that there is a specific, universal standard one must meet to earn the senior engineer title. Cottrell explains that titles in software engineering are largely company-specific, with varying criteria across organizations, and lack industry-wide institutional guidelines, which can lead to ambiguity but is a reality of the field.

The final misconception addressed is that senior engineers will never have to engage in managerial tasks. Cottrell emphasizes that senior positions inevitably involve people leadership and the ability to multiply the efforts of others. He encourages aspiring senior engineers to recognize that their responsibilities extend beyond code to impacting their team members positively, underscoring that the highest value comes from human-centric contributions.

Topic Timeline

  • 00:00:00 — Introduction to senior engineer misconceptions — Jonathan Cottrell introduces the episode’s focus on clarifying what a senior engineer is, noting the variability in titles like junior engineer. He shares personal news about his new baby daughter, Nova, before outlining the goal to debunk three key misconceptions about senior engineering roles.
  • 00:02:22 — First misconception: technical isolation — Cottrell addresses the misconception that senior engineers only solve technically difficult problems alone. He explains that senior engineers typically work with teams and tackle context difficulties, such as legacy code decisions, rather than purely technical challenges like algorithm writing.
  • 00:04:13 — Second misconception: universal title standards — The host discusses the false belief that there is a specific standard for becoming a senior engineer. He highlights that titles are company-specific, with no industry-wide norms, causing variability and ambiguity across different organizations.
  • 00:05:42 — Third misconception: avoidance of managerial tasks — Cottrell debunks the idea that senior engineers never have to do managerial work. He argues that senior roles require people leadership skills and the ability to multiply team efforts, emphasizing that value comes from impacting others, not just individual technical output.

Episode Info

  • Podcast: Developer Tea
  • Author: Jonathan Cutrell
  • Category: Technology Business Careers Society & Culture
  • Published: 2019-08-02T09:00:00Z
  • Duration: 00:07:33

References

Podcast Info

Transcript

[00:00:00] You just got your first job as a software engineer. Maybe you got hired as a junior

[00:00:11] engineer or maybe you just have the title of engineer. Some people even come in as senior

[00:00:21] engineers. What does this mean? What exactly is a senior engineer? In today’s episode,

[00:00:29] we’re going to talk about three misconceptions of the title senior engineer. My name is Jonathan

[00:00:35] Cottrell and you’re listening to Developer Tea. My goal on the show is to help driven developers

[00:00:39] like you find clarity, perspective, and purpose in your careers. Before we get started with today’s

[00:00:45] episode, I wanted to share some very exciting news. My wife and I welcomed our brand new baby

[00:00:50] daughter into the world on, I guess, a week ago when this episode airs. Her name is Nova,

[00:00:57] so now we have two.

[00:00:59] Little ones that have joined us. Liam, who is two years old, and Nova. We’ve been doing

[00:01:05] this podcast since before we had any children at all, so it’s really exciting to share these

[00:01:12] moments with all of you. Let’s get started with today’s episode talking about misconceptions

[00:01:17] about senior engineers. This is the third of our three by three week here on Developer

[00:01:24] Tea. This is something we did a couple of years back and we brought it back for this

[00:01:29] episode. I think today’s topic is incredibly important because at some point in your career,

[00:01:34] if you work on a team of developers, you’re likely to encounter someone with the title

[00:01:38] senior engineer. Now, why is this particular title important to talk about? Well, it’s certainly not

[00:01:46] the only title that can be confusing. For example, a junior engineer. What exactly does it mean to be

[00:01:52] a junior engineer? In some places, it means that you’re expected to be learning on a regular basis,

[00:01:59] and most of the time you’re going to have someone pairing with you. In other places,

[00:02:05] junior engineer has nothing to do with the kind of output that you generate and everything to do with

[00:02:11] how long you’ve been working at the company. There are some similar confusing points about

[00:02:17] being a senior engineer, and we want to talk about three of those misconceptions today.

[00:02:22] The first misconception is that senior engineers are only solving really

[00:02:29] technically difficult problems, and they’re working alone to do so. This picture of an

[00:02:35] engineer that is kind of going into their magic cave, and they’ve been doing this for what seems

[00:02:41] like hundreds of years, and they come out with some piece of incredibly important software.

[00:02:48] This is not an accurate depiction of the average senior software engineer. Instead,

[00:02:55] most of the time, senior software engineers are,

[00:02:59] in fact, working alongside other members of the team. And often, the difficulty that the

[00:03:05] senior engineer is kind of tasked with solving isn’t a technical difficulty most of the time.

[00:03:11] Instead, it ends up being a context difficulty. Decisions that were made, perhaps, many years ago

[00:03:19] in a legacy code base, for example. This is where a senior software engineer can shine.

[00:03:26] Most jobs that we encounter as a senior software engineer are not a technical difficulty.

[00:03:29] Most jobs that we encounter as software engineers in our careers are not going to involve

[00:03:33] deeply technical software engineering. We aren’t going to have to rewrite a bunch of sorting

[00:03:38] algorithms. Instead, most of what we have to determine as software engineers in today’s market

[00:03:45] is how do we fit these things together? How do we solve the problem at hand

[00:03:51] in the most efficient and appropriate way possible? A senior software engineer, then,

[00:03:57] is not really tasked with solving the problem at hand. He’s not really tasked with solving the problem

[00:03:59] at hand. He’s not really tasked with writing the most efficient algorithms, but instead

[00:04:02] understanding the product that they’re working on in the context that it exists.

[00:04:08] The next misconception about this title is one that’s true for most titles in the software

[00:04:13] engineering industry, and that is that there is some kind of specific standard that you must meet

[00:04:19] in order to gain the title of senior engineer. For better or for worse, titles for software

[00:04:25] engineers typically don’t necessarily have the same meaning as the titles for software engineers.

[00:04:29] have a specific standard that justifies the title. This isn’t necessarily the case in other

[00:04:35] professions, because many times other professions have established norms, sometimes even institutions

[00:04:42] that will provide these kind of guidelines. But for software engineers, any title that you hold

[00:04:49] is one that you hold because someone was willing to call you that. This ambiguity can be frustrating

[00:04:56] and it can cause a bit of anxiety, but it’s not necessarily the case in other professions.

[00:04:59] Because in one company, you may have one set of standards that identifies whether someone is

[00:05:04] a senior or a mid-level or a lead or a senior two. There’s lots of titles that you could have

[00:05:12] and they may be different from the next company that you go to. So it’s important to understand

[00:05:18] that titles are mostly relevant to the company itself and less relevant to industry-wide

[00:05:26] recognition. With that said, that doesn’t mean that you’re going to be able to get a title

[00:05:29] doesn’t mean that other people won’t take signals from those titles. It just means that everyone has

[00:05:36] a different definition of what it means to be a senior software engineer. The final misconception

[00:05:42] that I think is important to clear up about being a senior software engineer is the idea that you

[00:05:49] will never have to do what managers do. In this profession, we have the kind of illusion that

[00:05:55] there are two tracks, either manager track or manager track. And in this profession, we have

[00:05:59] engineering track. And while often our titles reflect those tracks, it’s very unlikely that

[00:06:07] you’re going to make it to the level of a senior position in any company without having some kind

[00:06:13] of people, leadership skills, and maybe even responsibilities. Now, this doesn’t mean that

[00:06:20] you’re going to identify with all of the responsibilities that a manager might have.

[00:06:26] And it certainly doesn’t mean that you won’t have

[00:06:29] a manager yourself or that your team won’t have a manager. But as a general rule,

[00:06:35] the most valuable people in a given company are the ones who can multiply the efforts of others.

[00:06:42] If you are a senior software engineer, and all that you can do is provide your own effort,

[00:06:48] and you’re not affecting your team members in a positive way,

[00:06:51] then you’re probably not operating at your highest value to the company. For that reason,

[00:06:58] if you are headed on the track towards becoming a senior software engineer,

[00:07:02] then I encourage you to dispel with the idea that your responsibilities are entirely represented in

[00:07:10] code or in features, and instead understand that all of your responsibilities ultimately

[00:07:16] are about humans. Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode. Thank you to today’s producer,

[00:07:22] Sarah Jackson. My name is Jonathan Cottrell, and until next time, enjoy your tea.

[00:07:28] I’m Jonathan Cottrell, and I’ll see you next time.

Visão de gráfico