alt Hacker NewsFor me ego-wise I don't feel like I ever will be senior. I have worked with people who claim to be senior and are barely able to function so it's funny. I have worked professionally in some capacity for almost 10 years. Right now I'm working with cloudformation templates. I have seen myself improving over time and recognize my own older-self bad code. Learning faster. But yeah it's one of those things like I'm the quiet guy in a pack. I'm just lucky I lift so I'm big and people don't mess with me but I'm pretty meek as a person. This job is about merit, I'm not saying physical appearance should matter. But I'm emphasizing my self-esteem problem.
Counter to myself, a co-worker of mine who's been at the company I just joined longer than me, he gets to set things up, make decisions. Then he has to change directions and hands it to me, I ask him "how did you come up with this" and he says "I asked ChatGPT" and I'm like what?... But it is a learning tool and doing new things (this case was a starting point for Apache Airflow DAG work). But that's a case of "I'm senior".
I did read this article and I get the idea. I still have that problem where I ask what to do (mid) and a lot of times it's because I don't know if I can make a decision, is my choice good kind of thing. Uncertainty but again merit or ego?
I'm also fine not being anybody, stress-wise and finance. Not sure what the pay jump is where I'm at. Wouldn't mind a coast-type job as I have pretty good perks (gym, walks, beer on tap, hybrid) and I can pursue my other projects outside of work like robotics that I can't do at my day job (agentic work lately).
Alright I'll be done ranting, I have been a one-person dev for a startup that died it was a WebRTC document signing platform, damn that was a great project, had like 7 different repos of different tech even wrote a wrapper around Apple CUPS. So tragic when projects go nowhere and get shelved.
I think the best thing I have learned is to put ego aside (regarding avoiding arguments) and just go with the flow. In my tense environment anyway, I need money so I need this job. I was able to get along with my manager who I was having problems with in the beginning. He's one of those very blunt, direct people, you'd consider an asshole. But I aspire to be that you know a driver that makes shit happen. Like a Steve Jobs although I'm not really an asshole, I don't like seeing other people in pain. Back to self-esteem.
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> Counter to myself, a co-worker of mine who's been at the company I just joined longer than me, he gets to set things up, make decisions.
This is the most funny part I am encountering all the time. Either one has more experience (job hopping), or one has more weight in decision making (staying longer at one company).
It is unusually hard trying to convince a manager who had their tech stack calcified the day he was promoted to manager role.
Are you me?
I've been with my org for 10+ years. Never had a promotion, people younger than me have shot up the org who joined after I did.
The thing is I prioritize health and wellbeing over any job I've had. However I've been told I'm super reliable, well liked and hard working... Although like you I'm the quiet one at the back of the room.
I recently failed an interview for a promotion, this would have been for a senior engineer. Feedback was I failed to convince the panel I had what it takes to lead a team (despite doing this everyday anyway in the org). Makes it hard to stay motivated TBH. Back to lifting weights I guess!