7 YoE, a little scared going into senior
Posted by paddockson@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 32 comments
I am a 32M with 7 YoE, I have architecture, AI and cloud resource management exp as well as a bunch of tool and tech stacks. Im pretty proud of what I've learnt and achieved these last 7 years. At my current place of work im being grossly underpaid and I am now looking for my new role. Because of my exp recruiters are actually feeling confident and putting me forward for senior or even lead roles that are a 25k-35k jump in salary (thats how underpaid i am).
I can't help but feel really nervous and scared to take that senior leap, I don't have any exp leading teams or mentoring and I want to get that exp but I'm not always the best with people. And even though I have exp in designing systems and then building them end to end I still can't shake the feeling ill mess up in a official capacity and I won't even pass probation and I'll have no job in this market....
Did anyone else feel this way taking that leap?
R4TTY@reddit
Senior isn't much different to intermediate. I wouldn't worry about that. A lead role would mean some people management stuff, so that might be a bit different to what you're used to.
GlobalCurry@reddit
At some companies seniors are basically expected to be mini managers on top of standard work. Just something to watch out for.
paddockson@reddit (OP)
Im being put forward for a lead role and its a 4 stage interview process (roll my eyes) and one of the stages in role playing gathering requirements and then designing a system around those requirements
morgo_mpx@reddit
You probably do this already but just in an informal way and without accountability. try to relate your daily job back to assessment criteria or responsibilities that you find online if your company doesn’t provide one
paddockson@reddit (OP)
Your probably correct i think its more my confidence and thr anxieties that come with starting with a new business
morgo_mpx@reddit
Most jobs that I’ve been hired to have skeletons somewhere so more often than not they are trying to impress you then the other way around. This is one of the reasons why I fake it to you. Make it work so well.
paddockson@reddit (OP)
Lots people say this, do you think its just larger in our heads when we hit this point of our career? I think its also the anxiety of a new company as well
faster-than-car@reddit
At 7 yoe you are senior already
Wide-Pop6050@reddit
You probably do have related experience even if it wasn't formal.
If you've designed systems and built them end to end you've done some long term planning, project management etc
You've probably supervised or worked with interns, more junior people
I completely get that its scary but this is an opportunity to make the leap. If the recruiters are submitting you for these roles go for it.
Think of examples in past projects to use as interview answers.
Complex-Magazine6690@reddit
In most of the industry, Senior has a very wide range of expectations. At the lowest level, a senior is just the same as mid level, just with the expectation that you can carry a medium complexity feature from concept to production independently.
The more complex things you can handle, the more you can coordinate with different parts of the company, the more you can break word down, talk to stakeholders and push back and change requirements etc etc, the more senior you will perceived and the more likely it is that you will end up being promoted into a position with people reporting to you, but at the lowest level it really is just "can I throw a halfway complicated ticket at this dev and expect them to get it done for me on their own?"
AmbitiousSolution394@reddit
Titles means nothing. Sometimes people are given title without any actual update of the salary, sometimes people with lower title have higher salary then people with higher title.
Usually "senior" means that you have some experience, it does not automatically means that you will mentor somebody, work with people or lead team. IMO, as a regular senior, you are very far from it. So relax, focus on money and your duties, ignore title.
paddockson@reddit (OP)
I like this advice, cause im self aware enough to say im not ready to lead a team or mentor a junior. But I would love to one day! I just wsnt more confidence and more experience first. But I need to that fair pay first as well
SansSariph@reddit
You can absolutely mentor a junior, and probably should! There's no threshold at which you're suddenly "good enough" to share what you've learned.
The key is to practice humility and name your blind spots while owning that you do likely have at least something to offer. And be growth minded and have your own mentor or trusted peer to help you flag those blind spots.
paddockson@reddit (OP)
Oh I can name my blind spots for sure lol but when I think about what I could give to a junior I think backend. I can 100% teach a entry level junior anything they need to know to kick off there career in backend technologies. Its good advice to be in a growth mindset, I have not had much mentors my self apart from uncle who has help me navigate the business side of things a little more as he was a CTO
ghdana@reddit
Senior is not as important as it is in your head at most companies. Sure you might have to run some design meetings and gather consensus, but typically you have like a Staff or Principal engineer above you.
futuresman179@reddit
As someone who just started a senior role 5 months ago with 6 yoe, don’t worry. I’m learning after being a senior that titles mean nothing. Just today I worked with a “senior” that couldn’t figure out how to uninstall an Android app. One of the level 2 engineers I work with does a more thorough job than the staff lead. It’s just luck on how well you do in the interview. Focus on doing a good job, talk to your manager to align on expectations, deliver results, if you do that then titles (however meaningless they are) will follow.
humanguise@reddit
I've seen senior titles handed out based on potential, tenure, and capability. It really varies. I have been working with my current company for a while, so I have a rough grasp of all my colleagues' levels. We have some intermediates that are stronger than some of our seniors. Even if you are technically more capable than the vast majority of people, you are still subjected to your company's promotion process and technical proficiency is hard to get promoted on alone unless you are given wide discretion, but you usually need a title to have discretion.
skidmark_zuckerberg@reddit
For what it’s worth, after two years at my last job as mid level, I got bumped to Senior. I remember thinking “oh shit how am I gonna do this?”. Turned out hardly anything changed except being invited to new meetings which took up more of my time. Was still doing the same work I was doing as mid level. Just had less time to do it hah. Pay bump was nice though.
paddockson@reddit (OP)
I hope this will be the case for me but with some added system design thrown in, it seems from what everyone has said its all just anxiety from the unknown
skidmark_zuckerberg@reddit
You likely experience systems design regularly as a mid level, you just don't realize it at all. And yeah I feel you on the anxiety of the unknown, I deal with that myself. I don't really know the answer to solving it other than just going through it.
But for Senior level interviews, the chances you will have a systems design round is pretty high. These are tough even for people who are experienced, because they condense designing a slice of a system down to like 1 hour. And then you have to think on the fly on top of it and deal with being thrown off track by the interviewers. This is a lot different from how you would work on the job. On the job you get time to be alone and research requirements and the codebase, evaluate your decisions, and you also have the liberty to discuss and bounce ideas off of other coworkers as well. My suggestion is to spend a lot of time practicing systems design interviews. Companies give frontend focused or backend focused depending on the role. There is a way to 'talk' during these interviews, you'll notice that when watching some practice system design interview videos.
And I am not affiliated with these but Hello Interview or Great Frontend are good resources for either side of the sys design coin.
paddockson@reddit (OP)
Yeah that interview round will be difficult because I take a lot of value on the research side of things. I recently migrated NGINX to gateway API and rerouted all the endpoints in APIM, if you asked me to come up with a design plan for that in an hour you would see very little because I was researching this subject for atleast a week before I started on a plan!
I think i will watch a few videos and check out those sites you recommend on these interview rounds, thank you for the advice
skidmark_zuckerberg@reddit
No prob, and again, I am the same way. I take a lot of value from having time to come up with a plan and being able to iterate on it. Most of us are in the same boat and are not so different. Being a Senior doesn't mean these things magically come to you. So don't feel like you are lesser because of it.
Good luck out there!
ButchDeanCA@reddit
I became senior at 7yoe. A piece of cake!
Content_Cry6245@reddit
I think seniority comes with the experience. If you alrey are the ones with ideas about where your team should be heading and if you can deal with people in a normal manner you should be fine. Bonus points for being emphatic, understanding and protective of the juniors.
mrplentycodes@reddit
Dude take the leap, i did "senior" job for good year and half until i got official promotion. Is nothing special no need to worry so much. I will be good for your CV too, you will clearly show progress.
NightSp4rk@reddit
It's not that big of a leap tbh - many seniors/leads have the same level of knowledge as intermediates but are just in that position before they are older.
paddockson@reddit (OP)
Lots people say this, do you think its just larger in our heads when we hit this point of our career? I think its also the anxiety of a new company as well
NightSp4rk@reddit
That's definitely a big part of it.
blissone@reddit
No need to worry if you can unstuck yourself (or propose alternatives) and show initiative, thats literally the only difference. Seniors with 0 initiative are the worst.
WoodenStatus6830@reddit
> I still can't shake the feeling ill mess up in a official capacity and I won't even pass probation and I'll have no job in this market....
It'll be fine, messing up is part of the job. The expectation of what a senior is varies wildly between companies, but in the end it's just a title. Think about this way: if you got a 30k pay raise knowing that you'll do pretty much same things you are doing now, would you be so nervous? I think it's more like you're worried if you'd fit in the new job or not, in that case, relax! It's a bit of a gamble, but stand proud and go get it. There will ALWAYS be a next job, it's just the way goes under this capitalist hellscape.
downdxb@reddit
Bumped to lead 6 months ago as my lead left and no one to replace. 6 YOE. The biggest shift in my job is delegating, breaking down obtuse PRDs into tickets, and dealing with (internal) stakeholders. I still probably spend 50% of my time developing.
I was really hesitant to take the role as my plan was always IC as long as humanly possible, but I’ve actually really enjoyed my time so far. I guess the only caveat is I stayed in the same company, and same team, so transition was probably a bit easier. Although going from coworker to manager with my team was a bit awkward at first.
Take a punt at it and if you don’t like it, look for something else while on probation!
anoncology@reddit
I get it. Just try it and see.