How to Accidentally Become a Senior Software Engineer
A completely serious guide to doing something without meaning to. Results not guaranteed. Accidents never are.
Short answer
Say "it depends" in every meeting, fix one bug that nobody else could find, and keep doing it for about eight years. One day someone changes your title and you will not remember agreeing to it.
The step-by-step accident
- Break production once. Not on purpose. You will learn more in that one hour than in a year of tutorials.
- Read the error message. Ninety percent of seniority is actually reading the error message. The other ten is reading it again, slowly.
- Answer every question with "it depends". It always does. This is the senior engineer's secret handshake.
- Help the junior who asks the "dumb" question. It was never dumb. Teaching is how you find out you actually understand something.
People also ask
How long does it take to become a senior engineer?
Commonly five to ten years, though it is measured in judgement, not time — how many production fires you have put out calmly.