So You Want to be a Big Shot: Advice on playing the promotion game
davidreiscto.substack.com
So You Want to be a Big Shot: Advice on playing the promotion game
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Re: So You Want to be a Big Shot: Advice on playing the promotion game
#2The vast majority of devs are under 30. Already most people are "senior" after 5 years experience. What are we going to do when this cohort wants to get promoted into architects and managers in 10-20 years time? There just aren't enough senior jobs.
Re: So You Want to be a Big Shot: Advice on playing the promotion game
#3The vast majority of devs are under 30. Already most people are "senior" after 5 years experience. What are we going to do when this cohort wants to get promoted into architects and managers in 10-20 years time? There just aren't enough senior jobs.
Just make up new titles.
Super Senior. Super Senior II. Hyper Senior II Turbo. Super Senior: Ultra Instinct.
Re: So You Want to be a Big Shot: Advice on playing the promotion game
#4The vast majority of devs are under 30. Already most people are "senior" after 5 years experience. What are we going to do when this cohort wants to get promoted into architects and managers in 10-20 years time? There just aren't enough senior jobs.
What do we do when they all want to be CEO after that?
It's just a reality that promotions are limited and not guaranteed, and that reality becomes harsher the higher one climbs.
Also, many people don't want the leadership and organizational responsibilities that come with being promoted higher (less coding, more politics, less working by yourself, more working through others' hands, etc.)
Re: So You Want to be a Big Shot: Advice on playing the promotion game
#5The vast majority of devs are under 30. Already most people are "senior" after 5 years experience. What are we going to do when this cohort wants to get promoted into architects and managers in 10-20 years time? There just aren't enough senior jobs.
Staff and above are fundamentally different jobs to Senior, which is why Senior is a terminal level at most companies.
It's about scaling yourself through others, and not everyone wants to do that, and that's OK.
Re: So You Want to be a Big Shot: Advice on playing the promotion game
#6The vast majority of devs are under 30. Already most people are "senior" after 5 years experience. What are we going to do when this cohort wants to get promoted into architects and managers in 10-20 years time? There just aren't enough senior jobs.
> What are we going to do
We’ll probably just pay them more.
Re: So You Want to be a Big Shot: Advice on playing the promotion game
#7The vast majority of devs are under 30. Already most people are "senior" after 5 years experience. What are we going to do when this cohort wants to get promoted into architects and managers in 10-20 years time? There just aren't enough senior jobs.
> cohort wants to get promoted into architects and managers in 10-20 years time?
Architect is a different role than a dev, assuming dev means programmer/coder/software developer/software engineer.
Manager is a completely different career path.
No every dev wants to change their role into a non-dev. Some will, some will and will end up going back.
> There just aren't enough senior jobs
Well the job will change. New teams, products, companies will come and go. No one stays at one company anymore -- okay that may be an exaggeration but very rarely do you see one person working a single job in this industry for 20-30-40 years anymore.
Re: So You Want to be a Big Shot: Advice on playing the promotion game
#8The vast majority of devs are under 30. Already most people are "senior" after 5 years experience. What are we going to do when this cohort wants to get promoted into architects and managers in 10-20 years time? There just aren't enough senior jobs.
Just make up new titles. Super Senior. Super Senior II. Hyper Senior II Turbo. Super Senior: Ultra Instinct.
Sandhill Road Fighter 6 Turbo!
Guile still slaps
Re: So You Want to be a Big Shot: Advice on playing the promotion game
#9The vast majority of devs are under 30. Already most people are "senior" after 5 years experience. What are we going to do when this cohort wants to get promoted into architects and managers in 10-20 years time? There just aren't enough senior jobs.
Lots of people don't progress past senior... ever. They don't have to, don't feel like fighting for that promotion or just plain aren't good enough.
Re: So You Want to be a Big Shot: Advice on playing the promotion game
#10The vast majority of devs are under 30. Already most people are "senior" after 5 years experience. What are we going to do when this cohort wants to get promoted into architects and managers in 10-20 years time? There just aren't enough senior jobs.
Just make up new titles. Super Senior. Super Senior II. Hyper Senior II Turbo. Super Senior: Ultra Instinct.
You're making a joke (and the reference is great) but this is actually what happens. It's where the idea of "Lead" came from, and in many other industries it's much worse. It's why in business there's "(Acting) Associate Senior Execuitve Global Managing Director, Clients and Markets" type positions, so nobody can definitively compare themselves to one another ("oh, so you'll be reporting to me") and people can feel like they're moving up, instead of just being called "manager" or whatever and understanding it's a wide band.
And you missed Championship Edition.