My colleague Elaine gave this interview on "what it means to be a senior engineer":
Ask HN: What non-technical skills make a senior dev and how to develop them?
21–30 of 136 posts
Re: Ask HN: What non-technical skills make a senior dev and how to develop them?
#22Empathy is the key skill. Yes, it's learned. The ability to walk in somebody else's shoes for a while makes you a better developer. Why? * You acquire the habit of imagining what it's like to use the stuff you develop. * You have a feel for the daily experience of your colleagues, suppliers, executives and other stakeholders. These things give you the sort of spidey-sense that lets you function independently. They al…
But devs are perfect and special snowflakes who should be deferred to in every context. The users should just do what we put in the nonexistent documentation or figure it out on their own because the software is perfect amirite?
Re: Ask HN: What non-technical skills make a senior dev and how to develop them?
#23Faster, cheaper, better.
Re: Ask HN: What non-technical skills make a senior dev and how to develop them?
#24Age.
Grow old.
Re: Ask HN: What non-technical skills make a senior dev and how to develop them?
#25There's a lot of great specific examples in this thread but I think it all boils down to this one quality; being able to put your own ego aside.
I think what lets a developer graduate from one level to the next is realizing that your own knowledge, vision, etc. is limited and not always the right way to go. Being able to put your own desires aside and execute someone else's vision while still providing the benefit of your experience and knowledge when appropriate.
Despite being a senior dev for a while now it's something I sometimes still struggle with finding the balance on.
Re: Ask HN: What non-technical skills make a senior dev and how to develop them?
#26There are two rules of success, one is soft, one is not:
1. Do good work. 2. Don't be an asshole.
Re: Ask HN: What non-technical skills make a senior dev and how to develop them?
#27I would say a solid understanding of the fields that development most commonly intersects with. Typically business (including politics), product, networking, operations, and security. You don't need to be an expert but you do need to be able to carry on intelligent conversations at the intersection points.
You don't need to be an expert but you do need to have a firm grasp of the basics.
Re: Ask HN: What non-technical skills make a senior dev and how to develop them?
#28Being able to teach others - focussing on the why, as well as the how.
Re: Ask HN: What non-technical skills make a senior dev and how to develop them?
#29Depends on what kind of dev you are talking about. In a consulting shop (enterprise or web dev or advertising)? Big company (software, hardware or where software dev is an expense)? Game company? Silicon Valley startup? Senior devs in each of these types of companies have some skills in common and some that are particular. The common ones, in my opinion: * Ability to communicate with non technical folks * Ability to…
Willingness to do grunt work is a fast track to becoming a manager who says "I haven't coded in years".
No good deed goes unpunished. When you step up to be a team player and do that grunt work, you open yourself up to getting more and more of it. Next thing you know you have to stand up for yourself or become a door mat.
Re: Ask HN: What non-technical skills make a senior dev and how to develop them?
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Haha :-) Indeed, experienced people who had that perception. No grey hair? you can't be senior. Edit: I do not have grey hair.
My comment was a sort of provocation, but I see that some people seem to agree with it. It makes me a bit sad, but unfortunately sometimes it's pretty hard to change things - if at all! The other comments are all relevant and very good, but they seem to overlook one important aspect: the company's attitude. What all those comments have in common is that they assume things work according to Tom DeMarco's book Peoplewa…
Yeah, as I read many comments in this thread I'm left thinking that either these people are very naive or I'm severely jaded (or both). But the notion of work hard and you'll be rewarded is kind of silly when you're working as an engineer at MegaCorp.
I think if you're in a small company things could be different.