Skip to main content

Senior or Junior

Usually companies call young employees Juniors and more experienced Seniors. Sometimes you need to just sit and wait and it will come. Sooner or later. From my point of view it is not enough. I met a lot of old employees they call themselves Seniors but they behave like Juniors. So I defined my point of view on Seniority:

professional
simple understand what I am doing and understand reason why I am doing it

can coach others
this is very basic; who can coach others is just fine but who can coach others to became a new coaches is super

not genius but have deep knowledge on some specialized parts
geniality is overestimated, we do not need "magical guru", to be expert is good enough;
if you are "one to go" when there is problem, it is OK

big picture overview
it is not probably possible to understand a whole system in details but it is necessary to have at least overview

know what I know and know what I do not know
to see myself in correct light is very appreciated, not only area of my knowledge but also my white-spots

sixth sense
if I do not know an area but despite it I act good way due to my previous experience and history

understand business value
Senior should know how his work and personality contribute to business values delivered by company

can handle stress
to have mechanism for handling stress, sorting priorities and survive is expected

take responsibility for my mistakes and learn
rise a hand and admit mistake is not easy but who is not able to do it, is not able to learn and never will be Senior

open mind for a new things
"if you have hammer everything is a nail" or "we are using this for an ages so there is no reason to change it"
Senior must know why he is using old stuff and be ready to switch to new things

know how to give a feedback
people sometimes fail and sometimes win, it is good if they receive not only right feedback (positive or constructive or negative) but also right way

act like a small fish
if you are big fish small fishes are scared, it is better when Senior is open to Juniors and do not scare them

understand good timing
choose right time to release alpha/beta or final version for testing/integration or production is not easy but Senior should know when it is good enough and defend his opinion

strong internal motivation
it is impossible that Senior is just pushover, so you need to permanently check on him and motivated him to work after every crisis

show standpoint
it is quite naive to expect that other people can read my mind, if I am always silent and not sharing my perspective; Senior should be able to take clear standpoint and discuss it openly with all stakeholders

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Anti-Lean Quotes

Set of quotes which usually highlights Anti-Lean behavior Create waste instead of Eliminate waste ' Developer who is not working at least on 4 projects is not properly utilized ' - less is definitely more and only done-done work counts by end of the day, limited work in progress is helping to focus on right priorities ' In case of any network issues please create a ticket on the help desk system at our partner's web-page' - creating catch 22 situations by design is craziness, such a process does not make any sense 'Yes, this is what our customers really need but could we add also this small feature, just in the case?' - extra feature creates an extra complexity, it is better to stay focused on real value and make it great for the users ' I know that you are working on the top priority but I am sure that you can do also this small task till noon' - probably there will be nothing really done by noon, task switching is more expensiv...
Post a Comment
Read more

Software Engineer

Recently my company expanded the Software Engineer positions in my team. This leads me to thinking about the skills which are necessary for these positions. So I prepared a list of qualities which I think are important for a good Software Engineer. Abstract concept modelling This is essential and there is no room for discussion on this because this is what we do. Love to code It does not matter if you are 15 or 50 or if you write code 10% or 90% of your time, code writing is crucial. Team player The surgeon style teams (one genius with helpers) are obsolete, I prefer real team players who are able to work towards a common goal and share responsibilities. Communicative Silent geeks siting in the corner with a notebook on their knees are not cool any more, we need to talk to each other, we need to be able explain technical stuff to non technical managers, we need to be able to choose the right phrase at the right time. Take responsibility There is...
Post a Comment
Read more

Scrum rollout

Would you like to start with Scrum in your team? These are few hints from my experience how to make this process smooth, iterative & incremental: get commitment from the management & team define reason: why would you like to do Scrum? what problems it should solve for you? start with simple Kanban in one team: it is easier, you just need to manage 3 lists: backlog (todo), work in progress and done  focus on right priorities of backlog - person who defines the priorities will be 'product owner' setup quick way how to track work in progress and indicate 'impediments' -> daily stand-up; max 15 minutes meeting every day - moderator of the meeting will be 'scrum master', he will be also responsible for solving the 'impediments' focus on dependencies between the tasks to avoid 'impediments' start to put 'discoveries' into the backlog to pre-analyze tasks; discoveries should be done by architect or analyst what is the busi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Agile is not a religion

It is quite annoying to me when argument during discussion is like this:  it must be XY because the book says it. It is kind of: Bible is saying XY so we have to follow = end of discussion.  I am not very happy in such a case because we probably do not understand principles and just trying to blindly imitate something without deep knowledge of the matter. I prefer to admit it or show personal standpoint.
Post a Comment
Read more