I’m a Junior Developer – You probably are too

The post argues that software skill only makes sense in context. The author says experience can make someone good at the work they have done, but it does not by itself define seniority. In hiring, the relevant question is whether a person fits the needs of the team and the product.

Reading notes

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• The author says skilled people on simple problems can still produce scalable, well built solutions.
• Conferences, user groups, and development events help reset expectations about skill level.
• Despite many years in software, the author concludes that no one knows everything.
• Hiring web developers in Sydney exposed candidates with long experience who could not explain HTTP, POST submission, SOLID, design patterns, or ways to improve load speed and user experience.
• The author questions whether people with long experience in a narrow role should automatically be called senior or architect.
• Seniority, in the author’s view, depends on context and on what a new hire needs to do.
• The post suggests that labels like junior, senior, and mid-level do not describe experience or knowledge well enough.
• The author ends by suggesting that the industry may need a better way to describe people’s roles and abilities.