Junior, Middle, and Senior Developers: Knowing Who is Who
In the IT world, there have been existing a certain confusion with respect to software developer levels. Some say that junior software developers are those who have less than one year of working experience in the industry, and senior developers are those who worked 5+ years; others believe that it’s the matter of actual qualification and certifications obtained by the coding specialists.
As it usually happens, the truth lies somewhere in between. The thing is that each IT company has its own criteria for labeling the mentioned qualification levels. In reality, they hire real people, not the sets of technical functions only; thus, they adjust all these classifications to their requirements.
In spite of all the ambiguities on this matter, there are certain complex characteristics that clarify the matter of levels of software developers. Basically, the latter are usually recognized according to some characteristics that are intrinsic for each level.
Junior developers
A junior developer can work on the project only when being supervised. He/she can cope with simple tasks on one’s own and cope with tasks of medium difficulty only when being helped. As a rule, juniors have little to no working experience; thus, they often need to learn how to interact with the team and how to manage some elements of the language. They need to be able to perform uncomplicated technical tasks, e.g., if there is a ready architecture in the project, they need to be able to timely implement another piece of standard application logic. They need to ask for the assistance betimes in order not to break one’s head over a certain piece of the task ineffectively and for too long.
Middle-level developers
In software development, employees of this professional level can cope with tasks of medium difficulty autonomously. To tackle particularly complicated tasks, they may need some assistance from seniors. In general, middle developers have to do with higher commitment and a wider range of responsibilities. They know how to deal with standard templates and solutions and understand the structures of the standard apps. A typical mid-range engineer usually has experience in 2–4 companies under one’s belt.
Senior developers
Senior developers have to deal with the greatest responsibility and to tackle the most difficult tasks. The coders of this level know the frameworks and libraries to the tips of their fingers. Their key function is to take right technological decisions in the scope of the project — the ones that bring profit to the business and minimize losses. Seniors are able to work autonomously, deliver the most efficient results and serve as the leaders and supervisors to others. Besides, they should have well-developed communication skills to be able to convince other team members in the required decisions.
Sometimes it’s not so easy to categorize an engineer. One may have proved to be a genius while working on the extremely complicated project, but to goof on the relatively simple task. Sometimes, a person with 4+ years of experience is not fully qualified to be called a middle developer, because the high coding standards are not intrinsic to the company he works in. Consequently, each case is unique and should be considered with due account of accompanying factors. Anyways, we answered the basic question placed in the title and we hope you gained a better understanding of levels of software developers.
