Stop it. The myth of the senior developer.

Enough with these “how to be a senior developer” stories

Aphinya Dechalert
Modules&Methods

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Unicorn by Andrey Drozdov

When I first wrote “The Marks of a True Senior Developer,” I never intended it to be the start of a wave of clickbait articles. Before that piece, literally no one was writing or using the senior developer tag word in their titles — for any reason.

Maybe there was one or two articles. But now they’re everywhere.

Perhaps it’s just my brain selectively getting annoyed, seeing people catch onto the tailwind successes of the original article. Or perhaps what annoys me more is that articles with senior developer in the title are now a 50/50 gamble when it comes to the actual depth and quality of each listicle item.

The truth is after some deep thought and contemplation, I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s no such thing as a senior developer.

Why? Because the idea of being a senior developer is highly subjective.

The Subjectivity of Seniority

Where you stand on the scale of seniority really depends on where you are: your company, the people, and the content you surround yourself with. Among complete beginners, you may appear like a senior dev because you simply know more than them.

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Aphinya Dechalert
Modules&Methods

Where Development Meets Storytelling: Tech Writer, Editor & Dev Advocate. Translating Complexity into Clarity. DM me. linkedin.com/in/dechalert