Comment by onion2k
Comment by onion2k 5 days ago
A very important skill for Senior engineers not mentioned in the article is an ability to take the initiative on something. For example, when a dev sees a bug in an area of code they aren't responsible for and thinks "I'll raise an issue for that and mention it to the product manager so we can get it fixed" instead of "Oh, a bug", then they're starting to show that senior mindset. It's a desire to make the whole of the software good rather than just the little bit they work on good.
beware, some cultures are territorial in nature and this kind of hard ownership will make people slap you if you ever try to improve things as they come.
i'm in the camp of improving things regularly without hesitation but again this can devolve. another way it can turn sour is when the team is made of people too different from each other. one improvement from someone pov is a waste or even a regression for others .. then it's a 'who decides here' conversation.
that said when you have a cohesive group all focusing on pushing in the same direction then it's bliss