Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Is it wrong not wanting career progression beyond senior?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 76 posts

Re: Ask HN: Is it wrong not wanting career progression beyond senior?

#61

Post by RajT88 »

I know people who have stepped down from principal. I just got the bump to principal myself after (allegedly) performing at Principal level for years.

The fun satisfying stuff is the generally lower impact work. The boring and frustrating stuff is higher impact work. If you do not need the Principal money, and Senior money is good enough to retire on, I can understand how you might be tempted to stay at senior, or even take a pay cut.

TL;DR: nothing wrong at all with staying at Senior.

Re: Ask HN: Is it wrong not wanting career progression beyond senior?

#62

Post by ASalazarMX »

creaktive wrote: post #14

“Even if you win the rat race, you’re still a rat”. I’m in this field because I like writing code. So many of my managers tried to push me to advance my career, and generally speaking, there is peer pressure. Don’t give in, if you’re having fun, and make enough for a dignified living, that’s what really matters, not the title.

I was a business developer for 20 years, and it was awesome. Mostly worked 40 hour days, my work load was predictable, I had time to constantly hone my skills, and the best of all, I was doing what I loved.

Five years ago I transitioned by accident to an executive position in cybersecurity, mostly because of my emphasis in secure development, and the recent creation of the area. IT security always has been my second love, but becoming a manager took a lot of the innocence that let me sleep like a baby every night.

I'm not complaining, I had to learn many skills, took very different challenges, and while I barely code anymore, I've both suffered and enjoyed the journey and the personal growth. Nevertheless, some days I still miss having way less responsibilities, and a more peaceful life.

I guess my point is, OP should do what he thinks is better for him while he can get away with it. If OP honestly believes his happiness is staying a senior forever, more power to him. In my case I wanted the challenge before the opportunity passed me.

Re: Ask HN: Is it wrong not wanting career progression beyond senior?

#63

Post by Myrmornis »

A lot of the discussion here is taking it for granted that staff+ comes with additional "responsibilities" that will differentiate your day-to-day from senior level engineers. That's often true, especially at larger companies, but don't forget that levels above senior exist at smaller companies too. In some cases it really just means you get paid more and have a more senior title. So, maybe not something to avoid?

Re: Ask HN: Is it wrong not wanting career progression beyond senior?

#64

Post by nogridbag »

nasmorn wrote: post #56
nogridbag wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work for a smaller company (~100 people) and took ownership of a new greenfield project. I have to wear all hats: hiring people, firing people, managing people (ensuring they're happy, salary adjustments), mentoring, project manager, architect, database design, mentoring other teams as SME (stayed at company too long), meeting with domain experts and creating requirements, UX design (amazing how few seem capable of…

Was the pay rise commensurate? Or have you been tricked?

A little bit of both.

Re: Ask HN: Is it wrong not wanting career progression beyond senior?

#65

Post by cloudedcordial »

Spartan-S63 wrote: post #4

No, there's nothing intrinsically wrong about not progressing past senior. Most companies see that as a terminal level because staff+ is such a shift in skillset. It's fascinating to me that you've not attained the senior level after a 15+ year career, though. That's a lot of time to spend as a mid-level engineer. Out of curiosity, why aren't you a senior engineer?

OP here. I started out in a very niche small local software industry thinking they didn't do evil like the big corps did. The old guys who started the company were in great control. They just wanted to do the same stuff when they were new college grads (just minus the punch cards). Business growth was dead. Salary didn't even keep up with the inflation.

Then I took a QA position in a big corp after spending my 20s not saving any money. Even this manual/automated testing role qualified me for a 50% pay increase from the old job without salary negotiation. No dev shop took me after seeing I was clueless in recent tech stacks. After a few years, I was tired of the manual testing part and looked for a new job.

Then I had automation roles in a few local companies with increasing DevOps components. The companies are progressively less rigid so they are good in letting us exploring and using new tech stacks.

My belief in not doing "evil" in my 20s has hurt me financially and career-wise in the long term. I didn't read industry news before I turned 30. The QA job, even if the company had some controversies, was a savior to stop beating a dead horse.

Re: Ask HN: Is it wrong not wanting career progression beyond senior?

#66

Post by tommiegannert »

unsnap_biceps wrote: post #46
creaktive wrote: post #14

“Even if you win the rat race, you’re still a rat”. I’m in this field because I like writing code. So many of my managers tried to push me to advance my career, and generally speaking, there is peer pressure. Don’t give in, if you’re having fun, and make enough for a dignified living, that’s what really matters, not the title.

I keep getting pushed to move into a role that I know I will fail in. I don't get it. I'm happy where I am. Isn't that enough?

The managers above you are judged by them climbing higher. So if they can coach you into a larger role, they'll look better. There's no incentive from the manager side to leave you alone, unless you've made enemies.

As long as you work somewhere with ladder mobility and some churn, the opportunists will rise, and they'll want/need you to rise too.

Re: Ask HN: Is it wrong not wanting career progression beyond senior?

#68

Post by coach_taha »

You’ve had a stable career, but it sounds like you’ve been reacting to opportunities rather than defining your own path. Switching roles and learning new tech stacks kept things interesting, but maybe now the move isn’t adding more tools—it’s finding clarity on what excites you.

Senior roles can feel daunting, but don’t think of it as just taking on more. Imagine leading a smaller, cross-functional team where you have ownership—driving one project from start to finish, making the calls, and staying hands-on. Or maybe you carve out a role where you mentor others while still tackling technical challenges that energize you.

You haven’t faced ageism, but here’s the truth: that 25-year-old will eventually come for your job. The edge? Mastering the "adult" skills they haven’t. Those deeper, strategic moves that come with experience—handling complex projects, leading without a title, and seeing the bigger picture.

You’ve proven you can thrive—now it’s time to design your career with more autonomy and impact. Forget chasing titles. Focus on creating the career that offers fulfillment, freedom, and depth in your work.

Your energy isn’t gone—it’s just waiting for a clear direction.

Re: Ask HN: Is it wrong not wanting career progression beyond senior?

#70

Post by nunez »

Of course not! The main reason why people progress is to earn more money. Software is extremely unique in that you can make a lot of money on skill alone without needing to go into sales or management.

If you don't spend a lot and are saving, who cares what you do for a living?

Post reply on HN