The document discusses the journey of becoming a senior developer, emphasizing that titles lack standardized definitions and are most useful for job transitions. It outlines the characteristics of junior, intermediate, and senior developers, highlighting the importance of problem-solving, teamwork, and effective communication with non-technical stakeholders. The author stresses that the role of a senior developer involves not just coding, but adapting theory to meet client needs and focusing on delivering value.

1. You call yourself a Senior Developer?
Antonio Perić-Mažar, Locasti
c
27.08.2021. - #phpsrb, Belgrade

2. Antonio
Perić-Mažar
CEO @ Locasti
c
Co-founder @ Litt
o
Co-founder @ Tinel Meetu
p
t: @antonioperi
c
m: antonio@locastic.com

3. https://www.iqvis.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Developers.jpg

4. How do you become a
Senior developer?

5. How do you become a
Senior developer
?
In year and a half?

6. How do you become a
Senior developer
?
In year and a half
?
Full-stack?

7. Salary!

9. • 33% of projects are never complete
d
• 50% of projects fail to meet their goal
s
• 75% of execs expect their project to fail
The aftermath

11. https://thevaluable.dev/software-developer-titles-junior-senior/

12. https://thenextweb.com/news/why-these-developer-job-titles-are-ridiculous-and-shouldnt-exist-syndication

13. A title with no of
fi
cial/
standardized de
fi
nition is
useless.

14. Titles are only useful
when changing jobs.

16. Junior developer

18. • Focus should be trying your best to lear
n
• Needs directio
n
• Needs supervisio
n
• Needs mentorin
g
• You can still be a junior even after a decade in the industry
Junior developer

19. A junior developer is
code focused, not
development focused,
and doesn’t understand
the distinction.

20. Junior developers are
not responsible for the
projects!

21. Intermediate developer

22. On the mission of finding
the Right way of building
the software

24. • They understand project, goals and teamwor
k
• They can estimate thing
s
• They can participate in improving things and process around the projec
t
• Systems built by intermediate will work far longer, but will lead to some sort of
disaster
• The sad fact is that vast majority thinks they are senior developers
Intermediate developer

25. They can be trusted to
raise issues of code
design, and play a
valuable role in design
discussions. They are
also the “workhorses” of
the dev team.

26. Senior developer

27. • They wrote under and over designed systems. And both failed
.
• They are solving issues -
fi
re
fi
ghter
s
• Hates complexity and it is obsessed with simplicity
They know how failure
looks like

28. A high-level
understanding of how
systems work
(closed systems, design
patterns, why, how, not
hype-driven)

29. They fully understand
that their job is not just
writing code but solving
problems
.

30. Knowledge about the
business' problem is
essential!

31. They fully understand
context when applying
theory!

32. There is no “right way”
to build software.

33. The only way to build
good software is by
adapting theory to
fi
t the
needs of the client,
budget, codebase, team,
tools, and organization
.

34. https://www.datocms-assets.com/7756/1579270413-soft-skills.png

35. Core skills not soft skills!

36. Your team members are
humans too…

38. Your team members are
humans too
…
Teamwork. Be nice. Care.

39. Making other humans in
the team better!

40. Be the senior you needed
when you were a junior.

41. Being able to
communicate clearly in
business language - not
tech jargon - with
business people / non-
technical co-workers
.

43. They understand it is not
about them, but about
customers.

44. Old people in the
Industry?

46. "The most important skill in the future will
be the ability to "connect the dots" in your
own way!" - Fabio Moioli

47. “You can know all the cool functional
programming techniques in the world, but if
you are unable to communicate well with your
team, or you are not able to focus on
delivering actual value to a customer, you are
not a senior developer.”

48. Thank you!

49. Questions?
Antonio Perić-Maža
r
t: @antonioperi
c
m: antonio@locastic.com