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Discussion on: Have you ever worked with an engineer who never leveled up?

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itsasine profile image
ItsASine (Kayla)

It's entirely possible that they were happy where they were. Come in, write code, go home.

Leveling up would mean more paperwork, more meetings, more expectations, more thinking about the job at home... if the pay doesn't make that worth it, and the pay where they are funds what they do care about, it'd entirely valid to just keep maintaining rather than pushing to grow.

As you saw, that means they're more likely to be on the chopping block for layoffs, but a company can't have everyone fighting to get the lead positions and commanding more money.

There needs to be a healthy amount of people who you can depend on to just do work.

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elmuerte profile image
Michiel Hendriks

Leveling up would mean more paperwork, more meetings, more expectations, more thinking about the job at home.

If that's what leveling up means for software developers, then you are doing it wrong.

I think the question was about getting more skilled, not getting a higher/different role. I've seen plenty of developers in my current company who did not grow past junior or mid-level. i.e. they could not take on more complicated work, or produce better quality work.

You don't want to keep juniors around, as they will take down the rest of your team. These people should probably also reevaluate their career choice. Programming isn't for everybody, it's really difficult stuff. However, it could also be that the developer can grow in a different environment, that this job simply isn't a good fit.
Note: I'm assuming here that the company has tried their best to get the junior to a higher level. You cannot expect them to do it all by themselves. Only a few are able to really do so.

As for mi-level developers who get stuck. Nothing wrong with these, as they generally form the large part of most teams. Just make sure the team also has more senior members, otherwise the quality of work this team produces will start to go down.

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jaidutta profile image
Jaidutta • Edited

Not everybody has to be a super hero. It is just work. Some people are trying their best to put food on their table. May be there is nothing better they know. Neither does everyone needs to be a super genius like you. I don't know why lead dev, senior devs have so much ego. They have to remember they were there once. Some people learn at a slower pace than others and not everybody has to be the best of the trade. If a team is not interested why someone is struggling and how they can help them to make the member a better version of themselves, what is the point of being in that team? I have seen many devs getting promoted just for being good at corporate politics--just for kissing someone's *ss. This whole dev experience is getting toxic these days just for people with massive ego, thinking they are better than the rest. I believe that coding is for everybody-- provided that they have the passion and right attitude to learn. People have life outside of work-- family and friends and also their own 'me' time. For some people even to move their body from one place to another could be a struggle. Besides, he could also be going through mental issues/ other forms of suffering that he never told anyone about. I have never heard/seen anyone writing on why others are not trying to be the shop manager or willing to go the extra mile to be the top doctors in the country or why other participants are not winning the first price in the competition. Why do we see so many arrogant developers/personalities in the industry that they look down upon others?

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steelwolf180 profile image
Max Ong Zong Bao

I agree in the office politics and boot licking skills might be one of the reason as well. Which he/she might not want to do it.

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solariatu profile image
solariatu

From my experience, this was always the stopping factor and the reason behind moving from one to another company. Yet everywhere I go there is solid factor of egocentric sharks that just didn't like the colour of your socks on a Friday morning, or even worse you made them look like a fool in front of a whole team, putting their professionalism to a doubt.
These days the majority of developers take up this type of career for the money, provided you can just complete a quick coding bootcamp.
The worst part that bothers me is that many companies these days consider amount of years of experience you had as skills metrics, rather then what you can actually offer as a professional.
Hooray for mediocrity.