The Differences Between a Junior, mid-level, and Senior Developer
Reading time: about 7-10 minutes
Language Difficulty: 2 (1 is easiest, 5 is hardest)
Original address: medium.com/better-prog…
This is an interesting article on how to “identify” the level of programmers, in addition to giving you a reference for self-rating titles, but also a lot of inspiration on how to take yourself to the next level. For me, the most important takeaways are two
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More than half of a programmer’s abilities lie outside the code
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The power within the code has less to do with functionality than with how easily the code can communicate with “people” rather than “machines.
I hope you can have your own harvest. Because the article is in relatively simple English, it is recommended that you ignore the translation and read the whole article coherently when you first read it.
Enjoy!
Being a junior, mid-level, Or senior developer doesn’t have to do with the years of programming experience that you have Can even be older than a senior developer. It all comes down to skill. This doesn’t mean that a senior developer has to be an expert in everything, But it’s safe to say that senior developers are far more skilled than junior and mid-level developers.
Whether you’re a beginner, intermediate, or advanced developer doesn’t just depend on how long you’ve been programming. A junior developer can be older than a senior developer. It all depends on your skills. This is not to say that a senior developer is an expert in every area, but a senior developer does have a much greater skill set than a junior and intermediate developer.
But more than just coding skills differentiate the senior developer from the mid-level and junior developer. So what exactly are the differences?
But it’s more than coding skills that separate senior developers from junior and intermediate developers. So what are these differences?
Obviously the senior developer has far more knowledge than the junior and mid-level developer. Knowing design patterns, architecture, automating testing, performance, security, etc. is a good way for a junior developer to close the knowledge gap with the mid-level and senior developers.
It is clear that senior developers have more knowledge than junior and intermediate developers. Beginner developers can bridge the knowledge gap with beginner and intermediate developers by becoming familiar with design patterns, architectures, automated testing, performance optimizations, security, and more.
It’s important to know how things in software development should be done. But just knowing all this stuff doesn’t make You a senior developer. Knowledge isn’t the biggest difference between developers — it’s just one of the factors.
It is important to know all aspects of software development. But that’s not enough to make you an advanced programmer. Knowledge is not the biggest difference between programmers, but just one of them.
Despite what most people think, coding is not about communication with a computer. Coding is about communicating with humans and instructing computers. Eventually, code gets compiled and translated to zeroes and ones.
Contrary to what most people think, programming is not about communicating with a computer. Programming is actually talking to humans and giving instructions to computers. Finally, the code is compiled and translated into zeros and ones.
Code has to make sense for other developers that have work with it in the future. A new team that has never seen the code before should be able to open the code and start working on new features or bug fixes. This is where the big difference is between junior and senior developers.
The code must be understandable to other developers who need to deal with it in the future. A team that has never seen the code should be able to open it up and immediately start working on new features or bug fixes. This is a big difference between beginner and advanced programmers.
I will leave out the mid-level developer in this comparison because the mid-level developer is kind of a gray area when it comes to coding skills. Obviously, it is somewhere in between the junior and senior. It probably leans more towards the senior side. This mainly has to do with experience, since mid-level developers have probably been through the whole development cycle at least once. They have made a lot of the most simple mistakes and learned from them.
I’m going to ignore intermediate programmers in the comparison, because intermediate programmers are kind of a gray area between junior and senior developers. They may be closer to the senior programmer side. This may have more to do with experience, since mid-level programmers are likely to have experienced at least one full development cycle. They made lots of little mistakes and learned from them.
How to sniff out the junior developer?
How do I identify junior programmers? (Don’t you use hair volume? …).
Junior developers are inexperienced. Some just graduated and are starting their first full-time job. The mindset of a junior developer often is to just make the code work. Working software and good software are considered the same.
Junior programmers are not experienced enough. Some are fresh out of school and starting their first full-time job. The beginning programmer’s way of thinking is to make code run. The software that works is the same as the software that works.
Programming straightforward code is hard. And it’s something that junior developers don’t do. Junior developers write fancy code. You can recognize the junior developer by quirky one-liners and overly complex abstractions. This is the junior developer’s way of showing off and letting the other developers know how good they can code. And it’s wrong.
It is difficult to write simple and straightforward code. This is something that junior programmers don’t often do. Beginner programmers write fancy code. You can spot a junior programmer from a weird single line of code and overly complex abstractions. It’s a way for junior programmers to show off their skills and let other programmers know how smart they are. But this is wrong.
Junior developers focus on the computer side of the code at the expense of the human side. And what about the senior developer?
Between the computer side of the code and the human side, junior programmers focus on the computer side at the expense of human readability. What about senior programmers?
When looking at the code of a senior developer, you might think: is this all there is? Where’s the rest of the code? A senior developer writes simple, straightforward, and maybe even dumb code. This is one of the biggest qualities that a developer can have when it comes to programming. A senior developer follows the KISS principle: Keep it simple, stupid.
When you read senior programmers’ code, you might think: Is that all there is? Where is the rest of the code? Advanced programmers write simple, straightforward code, and maybe even code that looks stupid. This is one of the most important qualities a developer has in programming. Advanced programmers follow the KISS principle: Keep it simple, stupid.
A senior developer thinks about their code in a different way than the junior developer. Code written by a senior developer will be made with maintainability and scalability in mind. This is a totally different mindset than the junior Developer has — the senior is thinking about the people who have to work with the code, while the junior is just thinking about making it work for the computer.
Senior programmers think about their code differently than junior programmers. They write their code with maintainability and extensibility in mind. This is very different from an entry-level programmer who thinks about the people who will need to work with the code in the future, whereas an entry-level programmer only thinks about how to make the program work for the computer.
Besides coding skills, there are some other factors that can tell you who’s what type of developer.
In addition to coding skills, there are other things that can tell you what kind of programmer this person is.
Junior developers, in general, Do the most simple tasks or tasks with low impact. They don’t do any design of architecture. Mid-level developers are not designing solutions either, they just perform tasks. The difference with the junior developer is that they perform those tasks with less supervision as long as they are assigned to relatively routine tasks. Senior developers can develop an application completely on their own.
Junior programmers usually do the simplest things or things that have little impact. They don’t do design or architecture. Intermediate programmers don’t design, they just get things done. The difference with junior programmers is that they usually need less guidance, if only to complete routine tasks. Advanced programmers can do complex projects on their own.
It doesn’t mean that the senior developer doesn’t have any questions along the way. Every developer has a lot of questions every day and that won’t change. That’s no different for senior developers.
That doesn’t mean senior programmers don’t run into problems along the way. Every programmer runs into a lot of problems every day, even senior programmers.
The difference is that senior developers know how to ask the right questions and how these questions get handled. Mid-level developers can ask the right questions when it comes to their relatively routine tasks, but need help on more complex tasks.
The difference is that advanced programmers know how to ask the right questions and how to handle them. Intermediate programmers can ask the right questions for routine tasks, but they need some help with more complex tasks.
The senior developer is never lost and knows how to follow up the question with the right action. This doesn’t mean that a senior developer can’t ask help from other developers. Sometimes the best way is to just ask other developers with experience in that area for help.
Advanced programmers know how to track down problems and find solutions. That doesn’t mean they can’t ask others for help. Sometimes the best thing to do is ask the people who have the most experience in the field.
The mid-level developer should be able to ask the right questions as well, as long as he doesn’t get assigned highly complicated tasks that require an in-depth level of knowledge.
Intermediate programmers should also be able to ask the right questions, as long as they are not required to complete highly complex tasks that require deep knowledge.
You shouldn’t expect a junior developer to ask the right questions straight away. Since junior developers are inexperienced, they need guidance from a more experienced developer. The junior developer needs to get provided with the necessary resources or a big push in the right direction.
You can’t expect a junior programmer to start out asking the right questions. Because they are less experienced, they need the guidance of someone more experienced. They need someone to provide them with the resources and push them in the right direction.
We all want to improve ourselves and get better as a developer. But what are the steps that you can take to get to the next level?
We all want to improve ourselves and become better developers. But what do you need to do to move yourself up a level?
Junior to mid-level
Beginner to Intermediate
Since junior developers are inexperienced, it is important to go through the whole development cycle at least a couple of times. This way you will fall into a lot of traps and learn how to avoid them the next time.
Because junior programmers have no experience, it is important for them to be able to experience several full development cycles. So they can experience a lot of pitfalls and learn how to avoid them next time.
When it comes to coding, you should learn how to write simple code. Think about the next person that is going to work on that piece of code. You should also learn how to debug, since this will give you a better understanding of what’s going on in the process.
In terms of writing code, you have to learn to write simple code. Spare a thought for those who will make changes to this code in the future. You also have to learn how to debug because it gives you a better understanding of what’s going on.
Furthermore, you should get familiar with best practices and learn about architecture, performance, security, etc. Close the knowledge gap that is required to get to the mid-level.
In addition, you need to become familiar with best practices and learn about architecture, performance, security, and so on. Close the knowledge gap between you and an intermediate programmer.
Mid-level to senior
Intermediate to advanced
Getting from mid-level to senior can be quite hard. Some developers will stay mid-level for the entire length of their career.
Moving from intermediate to advanced programmers can be difficult. Some people end up at intermediate levels throughout their careers.
Senior developers know what corners can be cut and what corners should never be cut. These are hard-learned lessons by making mistakes in the past.
Advanced programmers know which shortcuts to take and which not to. These are profound lessons learned from the mistakes of the past.
If you want to get to the senior level, you have to be prepared to take the tasks that no one knows how to fix. You should know more than just how to get the job done.
If you want to be an advanced programmer, be prepared to take on problems that no one knows how to solve. You don’t just need to know how to get things done.
As a senior developer, Your job is also to help the less experienced developers. You are the fallback for other developers when they don’t know how to do something.
As a senior programmer, it’s also your job to help less experienced developers. You have to step up when other developers don’t know how to do it.
And it might not surprise you that senior developers master their tech stack. There is more than just coding skills. Get to know all the tools and applications that are being used within the company that you work for.
It should come as no surprise to you that senior developers need to master their tech stack. In addition to programming skills, you should be familiar with the tools or software your company uses internally.
I’ll leave you with a quote from Martin Fowler: “Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand.”
I’ll end with a quote from Martin Fowler, “A fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand.”