DEV Community

Cover image for Mistakes to Avoid as a Senior Software Engineer
Joseph Mania
Joseph Mania

Posted on • Originally published at techmaniac649449135.wordpress.com

Mistakes to Avoid as a Senior Software Engineer

There is no perfect man, holy books say so. A senior developer is always at higher pressure compared to the rest of the team. This is because the managers and business owners are looking to you when they need anything. Remember, you have to report to the board as well as organize your juniors to make sure the software is working right.

Fear of making mistakes

The number of years doesn’t matter when it comes to mistakes. As both a junior and senior developer, there is a point where you will make the worst mistakes, Kindly do not be afraid about that. Have a positive mentality that an error is a learning process, learning never ends. If you don’t make errors, then you don’t make anything. Be better and accept your own mistakes, then look at solutions.

Learning new things to solve problems

Remember, you have been upgraded to a senior engineer. If it’s a startup, everyone is looking for you, both front end and backend. You need to know how to manage the server and networks. It’s like you become a DevOps engineer. Yeah, do not be afraid of learning new petty stuff, even from your junior friends. The thing is that I am familiar with the minor staff. Have knowledge about most things in all the teams.

Getting it wrong first

That is the way. Software development is like a rough game where you don’t know about the end results during the first stage of development. So always expect the worst after the junior team has brought the code together. You don’t need everything to be working right. Have a book and note down what was done the wrong way and needs rectification. Majorly, don’t feel bad when the software doesn’t work the first time. Let the mistakes bring more ideas.

Stop Pareto Principle

This is hilarious and I learned this from certain blogs. The Pareto principle dictates that the 80% being brought about by 20%. Is this true? If you are a non-technical team, be sure some projects are built by purely third parties and function well. But as a senior, avoid this, have the required skills, and follow the right path to achieve your own product. Let your junior understands that their own product is much better than using any third party.

Top comments (6)

Collapse
 
koukibadr profile image
Kouki Badr

I loved the way you write and explain things great work and keep going!
but I also enjoyed the irony that this article is dedicated to seniors and written by a junior developer 😂

Collapse
 
techmaniacc profile image
Joseph Mania

🤣🤣 @koukibadr thanks, i was just posing a challenge to our fellow senior guru to see what they got for us.

Collapse
 
mosi6186 profile image
mz

👌👏👏👏

Collapse
 
mosi6186 profile image
mz

🤣🤣🤣

Collapse
 
kirankshatriya profile image
kirankshatriya

I'm not sure I fully understand the point you're making on the 80-20 rule. I think it can be helpful guide that prevents premature optimization and over-engineering in general. It can guide devs how to prioritize changes to their software projects. Apologies if I misunderstood your point though.

Collapse
 
techmaniacc profile image
Joseph Mania

No we are all correct. But i was trying to say was the fact that senior engineers knows alot of third party and how they can use shortcut to achieve a goal, in the long run, the third party got which might be 80%, got their negative issues. Its best they cncentrate on bulding their own API with junior teams.