Ask HN: What did you do that helped you reach senior title?
20 comments
I have been promoted in just about every company I worked at up to C-suite where obviously promotion isn’t really relevant any more. The common factor in each case is I always (no matter what my theoretical job title) try to do two things:
1) Understand as much as I can about the actual mission of the company. What is it trying to do, why does this make money, what is the impact it has on the broader society, how does my team/department contribute to this mission, etc? This helps to align my activities as much as possible with the companies actual mission because often bosses will give you tasks which are about furthering their career rather than doing this. If you try to make your work line up with the mission you avoid a lot of that sort of nonsense. Even if you don’t succeed, you will learn a lot by doing this and that will help to keep your work interesting.
2) Strive to increase my personal impact. Don’t try to get promoted, don’t try to get influence don’t try to increase salary etc. Try to figure out ways you can have a greater impact. All the other things will flow from that if you succeed.
1) Understand as much as I can about the actual mission of the company. What is it trying to do, why does this make money, what is the impact it has on the broader society, how does my team/department contribute to this mission, etc? This helps to align my activities as much as possible with the companies actual mission because often bosses will give you tasks which are about furthering their career rather than doing this. If you try to make your work line up with the mission you avoid a lot of that sort of nonsense. Even if you don’t succeed, you will learn a lot by doing this and that will help to keep your work interesting.
2) Strive to increase my personal impact. Don’t try to get promoted, don’t try to get influence don’t try to increase salary etc. Try to figure out ways you can have a greater impact. All the other things will flow from that if you succeed.
> often bosses will give you tasks which are about furthering their career rather than doing this
And what is the impact on your career if you argue against doing that?
And what is the impact on your career if you argue against doing that?
Clearly depends on the situation and boss but often very negative in my experience, which won’t surprise anyone. In particular if the way you call this out makes your boss look foolish to their peers they will blame you (as I have discovered to my great chagrin). So discretion is often important and sometimes in some companies you have to just suck it up and do the thing because you’ve been told to. That might be a good cue to start polishing up your CV and calling recruiters though.
Aligning your activities with the company mission is great advice.
“bosses will give you tasks which are about furthering their career”
This is obvious but hadn’t occurred to me
“bosses will give you tasks which are about furthering their career”
This is obvious but hadn’t occurred to me
Senior means different things across companies so if the goal is the title (which it probably shouldn't be), the fastest way to get there is to change companies - there will be someone willing to hire you with a senior title.
Or at least that was the case until recently, I don't know what's happening with the job market anymore.
Or at least that was the case until recently, I don't know what's happening with the job market anymore.
Thanks for the reply, the goal is definitely not the title, the idea is more to see what kind of different things people do in a general way that can push them to higher levels within the same company.
The best predictor for upward movement within a company is "does your manager's manager want you to move up". I know that all of this sounds kind of cynical but you can spend years trying to hit implicit and explicit goals for promotion and get nowhere, and you can also move up quite quickly just because someone higher up gave an okay.
I submitted my resignation during an exodus, and then told the CEO of my company at the time I'd withdraw it if he changed my title to senior and gave me full remote rights.
I was already operating at a senior level at the time, so it wasn't inappropriate. But sometimes there's only one language people understand, so you have to speak to them in it.
I was already operating at a senior level at the time, so it wasn't inappropriate. But sometimes there's only one language people understand, so you have to speak to them in it.
Well I mean, if you can talk to the CEO of the company directly it’s probably a small one and you know to put it bluntly the CEO doesn’t give a shit about your actual title. They only care about what you do and how much you cost. So from their point of view unless you got a substantial raise they got you to stay for free.
Titles are good for your ego and can help you somehow on the job market but further than that they are entirely meaningless. Strive for actual responsibility and money.
Titles are good for your ego and can help you somehow on the job market but further than that they are entirely meaningless. Strive for actual responsibility and money.
Correct, the title was for future bargaining power (which led to a raise shortly thereafter), and the full remote deal was a major raise in itself.
The company wasn't small, just poorly managed, and it appeared the CEO was the only person who would actually make a decision and sign the paper. It sat in various committees with no progress prior, so had to go over their heads. Another important aspect was I was on a project that was important to the CEO personally.
The point is it's all about leverage. Don't work hard and then expect them to just reward you automatically. It doesn't work like that. Work hard in a way that creates leverage, and then use that to force their hand or to job hop.
The company wasn't small, just poorly managed, and it appeared the CEO was the only person who would actually make a decision and sign the paper. It sat in various committees with no progress prior, so had to go over their heads. Another important aspect was I was on a project that was important to the CEO personally.
The point is it's all about leverage. Don't work hard and then expect them to just reward you automatically. It doesn't work like that. Work hard in a way that creates leverage, and then use that to force their hand or to job hop.
This might sound snarky but I assure you it is not. The most simple method is applying for a "senior" role then accepting their offer.
In the smaller start-up/scale-up world where "everyone's a senior" you'll be working with colleagues who only have 2-3yr experience, yet already have senior titles.
In the smaller start-up/scale-up world where "everyone's a senior" you'll be working with colleagues who only have 2-3yr experience, yet already have senior titles.
By getting acknowledged by my peers. Knowledge is the first step, so you need to know your stuff. The second step is to sell yourself as such knowledgeable person. Know what’s your position in the team/area/company and ask to be compensated as such.
If you are switching companies, you either switch as being already a senior or you do it pretty good at the interview. In any case, you still need to get acknowledged by peers once you start.
If you are switching companies, you either switch as being already a senior or you do it pretty good at the interview. In any case, you still need to get acknowledged by peers once you start.
[deleted]
The biggest quick hack to success in my career has been quickly leaving companies where I'm unlikely to succeed.
The second-biggest one was realizing that negotiating power is the currency of career progression. The more you use it, the faster you will advance.
The second-biggest one was realizing that negotiating power is the currency of career progression. The more you use it, the faster you will advance.
Being visible and present. Did this mostly by unblocking my team, writing ADRs for larger features, being involved during pre-grooming, and helping people via huddle or pairing.
Things also move much faster if you have frequent 1:1s and keep a log of your wins.
Things also move much faster if you have frequent 1:1s and keep a log of your wins.
I started to focus less on development.
This was my track, it will be different for others, but: seniority meant understanding user / business problems and then making better decisions about what to build.
I enjoy the quip that “juniors find complicated solutions to simple problems, mids find complex solutions to complex problems and seniors find simple solutions for complex problems”.
Sometimes the best thing you can do as a dev is to re-frame the problem, and I think a certain level of experience or confidence is needed to do that. But you can definitely cultivate the skill and get there sooner.
This was my track, it will be different for others, but: seniority meant understanding user / business problems and then making better decisions about what to build.
I enjoy the quip that “juniors find complicated solutions to simple problems, mids find complex solutions to complex problems and seniors find simple solutions for complex problems”.
Sometimes the best thing you can do as a dev is to re-frame the problem, and I think a certain level of experience or confidence is needed to do that. But you can definitely cultivate the skill and get there sooner.
Really great insights here so far! I can see that indeed the idea of unblocking your team, improve workflows, focus on writing documentation and working on things that matter to and further the company's business plan and mission are really key ingredients and, I believe I've been doing that for the better part of last year so I'm really glad to see that my own personal path and experience is aligned with a lot of the ideas I've read here!! Really amazing insights!!
I don’t recall! I guess one of the companies decided to start using it because I have a few yoe. Not something I care about too much. As long as I do senior type stuff in the job and get paid well.
Look for pointless work being done in the org and advocate for moving teams to working on what actually needs to get done.
It sounds weird but you’d be surprised how often teams have lost any good reason to be doing what they’re doing at a micro level. They might still be on track at a macro level, they’ve just got pointless work slowing them up.
It sounds weird but you’d be surprised how often teams have lost any good reason to be doing what they’re doing at a micro level. They might still be on track at a macro level, they’ve just got pointless work slowing them up.
Funny story about this. A Sr. SWE on my team - let's call him Sam - gained quite a bit of notoriety in our org division by doing this.
The core "backend", used by teams all across the division, is a giant C++ project (~1 million LOC) that used to be compiled with a Makefile that would recursively call other Makefiles. It was very brittle, obfuscated, inflexible, and a huge pain point. But also a huge endeavor to change build toolchains.
Sam worked part-time for about 2 years converting the build system into CMake. He met with many stakeholders of the project, along with engineers on teams that wrote clients for the backend. The end result was a significantly more robust, performant, and portable build for everyone.
It dramatically increased his profile in the company, and was quite impressive to witness.
The core "backend", used by teams all across the division, is a giant C++ project (~1 million LOC) that used to be compiled with a Makefile that would recursively call other Makefiles. It was very brittle, obfuscated, inflexible, and a huge pain point. But also a huge endeavor to change build toolchains.
Sam worked part-time for about 2 years converting the build system into CMake. He met with many stakeholders of the project, along with engineers on teams that wrote clients for the backend. The end result was a significantly more robust, performant, and portable build for everyone.
It dramatically increased his profile in the company, and was quite impressive to witness.
I've managed to get promoted to a mid level position by actually streamlining our onboarding process together with my manager during a time of team growth at the job, for example.
Do you have similar stories to share maybe?