Are you senior developer ready?
Practical tips to becoming a senior developer.
The developer community consists of numerous articles on steps to becoming a senior developer. However, many of them tend to focus on the big picture concepts. In this article, I aim to provide a comprehensive list of practical tips you can follow. I personally followed this list to become a senior developer without meeting the years of experience requirement.
First, a leap from a junior developer to a senior developer makes up a long list of technical skills to differentiate yourself.
Spend time learning security vulnerabilities and how to prevent them.
Write readable, maintainable, and scalable code.
Become a fire fighter. When urgent bugs are reported, remediate them efficiently.
Become proficient in researching new technologies and developing POCs (proof of concept).
Come up with creative and clever solutions that can be used company wide.
Create or refine coding standards and style guides.
Understand different types of testing methods.
Place testing rules and group testing meetings to production bugs.
Learn how to run mob sessions and pair programming meetings effectively and efficiently.
Have a strong understanding of the software architecture and the release process used by your team.
Always know the pros and cons of the method/technology that your project is using. Never say, “That’s how it’s always been.”
Contribute to the company wiki pages and write new documentations as needed.
Be up to date on the latest technology news and trends. Subscribing to newsletters is a great way to achieve this.
Mentor junior developers to provide them with resources and opportunities to improve. Learn to delegate your coding tasks.
Communicate with stakeholders (keep in mind the technical limitations). Learn to estimate and avoid over-promising.
On top of these technical skills, you should also improve your personal skills.
Become reliable, reachable, and consistent. Stay true to your word. Respond to messages in a timely manner.
Be precise in your speech. Avoid misunderstanding between your teammates.
Learn how to lead a meeting. Make sure that all opinions are heard.
Learn how to share your opinion. Be open to receiving feedback.
Learn to work in a fast-pace environment without distractions.
Encourage others to do their best and provide support when they are struggling.
Be optimistic and positive in meetings and try to add a smile.
Lastly, create a brag document to provide a comprehensive list of your contributions to show your manager when asking for a promotion. Best of luck!
