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Ask HN: Where to go after becoming a senior dev?

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Ask HN: Where to go after becoming a senior dev?

#1

Post by woile »

Hello people, I was wondering how do your companies deal with the life cycle of developers. After you reach certain seniority, what else can you do?

FMPOV a senior is comfortable with:

- understanding (most of) the business.

- understanding (most of) the technology.

- relatively good communication skills.

- being able to deliver.

- writing nice code (this is subjective and possibly not empirically true, there are probably many seniors who do not necessary write good code)

It seems to me that many devs, after 3 or 4 years in a place get into a stagnation point where they look for new challenges.

What else can be done?

I think many companies (including mine) offer the "communicator" grow path. Where your role is more about talking/being a guru, but what if you are a good engineer and want to continue doing that?

Does anyone have ideas over this topic?

Thanks

Re: Ask HN: Where to go after becoming a senior dev?

#3

Post by woile »

onion2k wrote: post #2

The 5 points you list are all about making good systems to solve the problems a business faces. The level up from that is a role where you're deciding on which problems to solve.

Interesting, thanks! Indeed, giving more power because to the person is capable of bringing new insights.

Re: Ask HN: Where to go after becoming a senior dev?

#4

Post by eydwales »

You have basically 3 way to grow: 1. You go deeper into tech and learn more about architecture (improve performance, reduce cost, reduce complexity...) 2. You go toward management and learn to code with more than 2 hands to deliver even more. This also implied hiring. 3. You go toward the business side and become product owner/manager or event sales.

What path to follow is a decision you have to make.

Re: Ask HN: Where to go after becoming a senior dev?

#6

Post by woile »

eydwales wrote: post #4

You have basically 3 way to grow: 1. You go deeper into tech and learn more about architecture (improve performance, reduce cost, reduce complexity...) 2. You go toward management and learn to code with more than 2 hands to deliver even more. This also implied hiring. 3. You go toward the business side and become product owner/manager or event sales. What path to follow is a decision you have to make.

thanks, super valuable.

Re: Ask HN: Where to go after becoming a senior dev?

#9

Post by logicslave »

francisofascii wrote: post #8
logicslave wrote: post #7

FAANG -> retire

I like this solution, but many are in a situation where we can't move to a new city or are just a step or two below the talent required to get into a FAANG. What then? Sub-FANNG companies?

Alot of the people hired at FAANG arent that talented. They just studied hard for the interviews. Its a myth. The long term payout is worth the months of study

Re: Ask HN: Where to go after becoming a senior dev?

#10

Post by knikes »

logicslave wrote: post #9
francisofascii wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like this solution, but many are in a situation where we can't move to a new city or are just a step or two below the talent required to get into a FAANG. What then? Sub-FANNG companies?

Alot of the people hired at FAANG arent that talented. They just studied hard for the interviews. Its a myth. The long term payout is worth the months of study

This is the sad truth. I spent 2 months studying programming questions, whiteboarding, and doing mock interviews to pass the interview to work at a FAANG company. I can't count the number of times I've whiteboarded the binary_search function by hand (a skill that obviously proved worthless in practice). Once you get past the interview, you can pat yourself on the back and affirm to yourself that you are 'talented', but the truth is that once you're in, its more or less like any other job (ymmv of course).
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