"what does the dog actually do if it catches it?"

Author achieved the senior role, but is unsure what comes next.

First of all, congratulations. As somebody that also achieved the senior developer title within the first three years of being hired out of University, mostly by luck: Yay money, but I wasn't a senior engineer really for another five years. For me, I needed to see the long term effects of the changes that I'd made and the software I had written to really understand the difference between cargo cult behaviour and what really mattered for the business I was working for.

When I meet fellow devs, I ask what projects they've shipped. Roles are near-meaningless across companies and convey 0 information about what their work involves in my experience. I appreciate that OP learned something about the job through this article.

Do we have thoughts on how important "senior"/"staff" is vs bullet points on resumes and the years of service?

I was senior in about three years. It helps to work for a consultancy company, they can charge a higher rate by calling me a senior.

Personally I don't think you can be a senior before ten years of fulltime work.

So many kids on hacker news

- I’d say SWE is an experienced engineer not a senior developer- for Pete’s sake he graduated in 2023 that was 3 freaking years ago

I’ve been developing production software for 20 years now -

What other profession counts someone with 3 years of professional experience out of college as senior?

Maybe competitive sports? Or academic math?

If it means this kid is smart and good at coding sure ill buy that but experiences and wisdom are something else entirely..

Humblebrag masquerading as self-reflection.

Who cares about titles?

It's a really bad signal when a software developer cares about their title.

All that matters is are you good at the work.