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Discussion on: What defines a senior software engineer?

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jonrandy profile image
Jon Randy 🎖️

More often than not... age

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baradm100 profile image
Bar Admoni

I totally agree with you Jon, having the correct personality and attributes do not have a direct correlation to age.

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jonrandy profile image
Jon Randy 🎖️ • Edited

Unfortunately though - in real life, having the title "Senior Developer" usually has more correlation to age than to actually having the requisite skills

This is my point

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alainvanhout profile image
Alain Van Hout

Yes, I see your point. I took 'senior developer' to mean more than that, since then the answer to the post here would be "a senior software engineer is someone who has the title 'senior software engineer' on their contract'. Which is as much true as it is meaningless.

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Alain Van Hout • Edited

In my own experience, age isn't that good a predictor for this. It's indeed a property shared among most senior developers, but I could say the same about having two eyes and two legs, or being able to read and write.

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Jon Randy 🎖️

I'm not saying that it's a good predictor - but in 25 years as a developer, I've found that it is usually the case - even if there are younger devs that are more capable

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alainvanhout profile image
Alain Van Hout

What I'm saying is that age (or 'experience') doesn't inherently make a developer more capable. It's generally the mindset that sets apart more capable developers. That mindset usually takes time to develop (so age is indeed a factor), but there are plenty of develops increase in years without improving in mindset.