The 5 Existential Crises of a Senior Developer

Have you ever felt like you are in the passenger seat of your career? By simply looking around and seeing how few 20+ year veterans you work with, you're actually staring our industry's sustainability problem right in the face. But the software industry needs you still contributing 20 years from now! Fret not, we can start fixing these problems, right now, in your own job.

Using in-depth research across companies of all sizes, you'll come away with a plan to start designing a sustainable career track to help you grow in skill, influence, and income now and long into the future.

Transcript

1. The 5 Existential Crises of a Tech Employee
4. First: A Warning
5. Second: A Spoiler This is actually a message of hope.
6. Brandon Hays. developer-turned-manager? @tehviking manageveloper? ummm… ex-developer?
8. Co-founder/CEO (quit) Software developer (meh) Marketer (failed) Network Engineer (failed) Video editor (failed) Graphic designer (failed) Manager (TBD)
9. C A R R E E }Meta-Career?
10. 5 Existential Crises
12. ERRor ERRor ERRor ERRor ERRor Our calculators are broken
13. 1. Breaking in (OH NO!)
14. [Breaking into the industry] sucks, and I’m sorry. - @tomdale
16. “I don’t have all that so I won’t apply”
17. The soul-crushing interview
19. Got my first dev job
20. 2. Where is my Obi-Wan?
22. But you keep calm and carry on
23. 3. Am I a real contributor yet?
25. What even does “senior” mean?
26. 1. Do a bunch of work 2. ??? 3. Voila! Senior!
27. I don’t know what “senior” means but it’s in my LinkedIn profile
28. 4. Groundhog Day
29. New job, new shiny stuff! Stressful, but learning! Learning slows down Leave, find a new job No learning, just stress :(
30. It’s… unsatisfying
31. 5. Total existential meltdown
32. 5. Total existential meltdown hashtag #farmlife
33. Why the hell is this happening?
34. ERRor ERRor ERRor ERRor ERRor Broken calculator formulas
35. Broken calculator formula 1: “I’ve got 10-15 years in this career, tops”
36. No 20-30 year veteran role models I only have 10-15 years, I better learn fast The new folks are getting good faster than me I don’t have a place here, I’ll take that manager job I have kids now, I can’t keep up with OSS anymore
37. Gymnast vs. Marathoner
38. Broken calculator formula 2: “I should be more like Industry Hero X”
39. What constitutes heroics?
40. HERO
41. If becoming a parent wrecks someone’s ability to perform “heroic” feats of technology, we have failed to properly define the term.
42. Broken calculator formula 3: “The new disruptive tech is the most valuable”
43. That Elm’s so hot right now
44. “Programming is a pop culture… pop culture holds a disdain for history.” - Alan Kay
45. Broken calculator formula 4: “There’s no track for me past Senior Contributor”
46. -Lester Freamon “Follow the money.”
48. We don’t need more 10x problem- solvers solving the wrong problems 10x faster.
49. We need folks that know which 9 of 10 problems don’t need to be solved in the first place.
51. This adds up to subtle (and blatant) ageism
53. “…So I’m just gonna take the ‘promotion’ to Manager.”
54. But we need you
55. Maybe turning our mega- senior contributors into junior managers isn’t the only path
56. And we can fight this
57. The 6-Point Plan™
58. 3.14159 26535 89793 23846 26433 We can fix ‘em!
59. 1. Take a breath.
60. Allen Wirfs-Brock Created early Smalltalk implementation Wrote the ES2015 (ES6) Language Spec 45 years of sustained, industry-shaping work Cool guy
61. “For the first 15 years, I was just learning how to be an engineer” “The next 15 years, I learned how to apply what I’d learned” “The next 15 years, I tried to learn to have industry-scale impact” 15 30 45
62. A 45-year view means you have room to breathe
63. 2. Find your board of advisors
64. It helps to have smart friends
65. It helps to have kind and honest folks in your life
66. 3. Design your map
68. Keynote Speaker Chief Architect Principal Engineer Evangelist Author/ Speaker Junior Contributor Team Lead Product Manager Freelancer Solopreneur Startup Founder Small Business CEO Founder, 3rd company Chairperson of the Board Director of Product Engineering/ Dept. Lead VP of Product VP Eng CTO contributor Manager Entrepreneur Founder, 2nd company Senior Dev Mid-level Dev
70. Is there a better term than “individual contributor”?
71. A Path to “Senior Level” & Beyond
72. There’s no such thing as a “Senior React Developer.”
73. There’s no such thing as a “Senior SCSS Designer.”
74. There’s no such thing as a “Senior JIRA Project Manager.”
75. There’s no such thing as a “Senior Rails Developer.”
77. 12 traits of senior contributors
79. Work produces artifacts (or for you Brits, artefacts)
80. It’s about the muscle, not the concept
81. Technical Capability Curiosity Rigor & Discipline Fearlessness Propensity to ship
82. Curiosity Junior: Just enough to Mid: Deep exploration of 1 toolset Senior: 2+ toolsets Beyond: Synthesis advances state of the art
83. Technical Capability Curiosity Rigor & Discipline Fearlessness Propensity to ship
84. Rigor & Discipline (for instance, documenting their work) Junior: Very bad or no documentation Mid: “Good enough” documentation Senior: Great documentation & feedback Beyond: Redefines approach to documenting
85. Technical Capability Curiosity Rigor & Discipline Fearlessness Propensity to ship
86. Fearlessness Junior: “Isn’t there a framework for this?” Mid: “Imma write a framework LEEEROY JENKINS” Senior: “Let’s not write a framework” Beyond: “I can fix the framework we already have”
89. Fearlessness Junior: “Isn’t there a framework for this?” Mid: “Imma write a framework LEEEROY JENKINS” Senior: “Let’s not write a framework” Beyond: “Let’s fix the framework we already have”
90. Technical Capability Curiosity Rigor & Discipline Fearlessness Propensity to ship
91. Propensity to ship Junior: Nothing to show just yet Mid: A graveyard of abandoned projects Senior: Maintains a few long-running projects Beyond: Has projects with industry-wide usage
92. Leadership Owner's mindset Communication & Persuasion Purpose “Next right thing” focus
93. Owner's mindset Junior: The technical problem is plenty, thanks Mid: Can explain the business impact of their work Senior: Sacrifices preferences for biz impact Beyond: Started/run/failed/succeeded in business
94. Leadership Owner's mindset Communication & Persuasion Purpose “Next right thing” focus
95. Communication & Persuasion Junior: “Communication is prolly good lol” Mid: Adapts communication to situations Senior: Defuses, turns around tough situations Beyond: LOL thought leadership
96. Leadership Owner's mindset Communication & Persuasion Purpose “Next right thing” focus
97. Purpose Junior: Happy to be on the team Mid: Acts on extrinsic purpose Senior: Acts on intrinsic purpose Beyond: Compelling vision & followers
99. Purpose Junior: Happy to be on the team Mid: Acts on extrinsic purpose Senior: Acts on intrinsic purpose Beyond: Compelling vision & followers
100. Leadership Owner's mindset Communication & Persuasion Purpose “Next right thing” focus
101. “Next right thing” focus Junior: Needs lots of help breaking down work Mid: Unintimidated by blank codebase/page Senior: Unintimidated by big refactors/editing Beyond: “How the hell do you get so much done?”
102. Connectedness Community-orientedness Mentorship Empathetic work Courageous honesty
103. Community-orientedness Junior: Little/no community involvement Mid: Meetup talks and/or blogs Senior: Conference talks, organizing events Beyond: Industry-impacting community work
104. Connectedness Community-orientedness Mentorship Empathetic work Courageous honesty
105. Mentorship Junior: Looking to be mentored Mid: A couple folks call them a mentor Senior: Several owe their careers to them Beyond: Large-scale influence on devs’ growth
106. Connectedness Community-orientedness Mentorship Empathetic work Courageous honesty
107. Empathetic work Junior: Gets that users & teammates are people Mid: User-centered development Senior: Also coworker-oriented Beyond: Large-scale impact on the way we work
108. Connectedness Community-orientedness Mentorship Empathetic work Courageous honesty
109. Courageous honesty Junior: Overly polite Mid: Needlessly blunt Senior: Life/business-impacting critical conversations Beyond: Sees patterns & establishes processes
110. Courageous Honesty == Radical Candor
112. Community-orientedness Mentorship Empathetic work Courageous Honesty Curiosity Rigor & Discipline Fearlessness Propensity to ship Owner's mindset Communication & Persuasion Purpose "Next right thing" Junior Mid Senior Beyond Connectedness Technical Capability Leadership
113. No one can focus on all 12 things
114. 3 strengths per weakness
115. Combine your strengths
117. 4. Pitch your plan
118. How do I put this into practice?
119. Spreadsheets.
120. Spreadsheets. No, Seriously.
121. Spreadsheets. No, Seriously.
122. One size DOES NOT fit all
123. 5. Plan your exit
124. Know where the track runs out
125. 6. Change your plans
126. #goals
127. Back to the crises
128. Only now, with a new inventory
129. 1. Breaking in
130. 2. Where is my Obi-Wan?
131. 3. Am I a real contributor yet?
132. 4. Groundhog Day
133. 5. Total existential meltdown
137. You are right where you need to be on your own personal path.
146. Never underestimate the power of making small improvements over a large amount of time.
147. Patience, persistence, and love
148. I love you and I believe in you.
150. Thanks. <3. Hugs. @tehviking brandonhays.com
151. image credits Lego Duplo by Arto Alanenpää https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Lego#/media/File:Lego_dublo_arto_alanenpaa_5.JPG Minifigure by clement127 https://www.flickr.com/photos/clement127/ Ouchi by Pascal https://www.flickr.com/photos/pasukaru76/ Do You Remember … The Future? by JD Hancock https://www.flickr.com/photos/jdhancock/ Lego Brick in Sand by vpickering https://www.flickr.com/photos/vpickering/ Windmill Blueprint by Mark Bridge https://www.flickr.com/photos/markbridge/ Kool-Aid Man breaks through the wall by Anna Creech https://www.flickr.com/photos/eclecticlibrarian/ Official Old Ben by Thunderchild7 https://www.flickr.com/photos/thunderchild5/ the gymnast from Team GB by julochka https://www.flickr.com/photos/julochka/ LEGO Manitoba Marathon 2012 by Salvador Maniquiz https://www.flickr.com/photos/pong0814/ "I ain't crying!" by true_brick https://www.flickr.com/photos/truebrick/ lego warhol by john gordy https://www.flickr.com/photos/johngordy/ github shower by @stepchowfun https://twitter.com/stepchowfun/status/738231117933776896 foolish lego by dwaas http://www.foolishlego.com/?p=5469 lego computer programmer (nerd?) (series 7) by julochka https://www.flickr.com/photos/julochka/ Murmeli - Groundhog by Eero Okkonen https://www.flickr.com/photos/kumipallomaa/ Sugarcane Farmer by Jared https://www.flickr.com/photos/jared422/ Gewichtheber by kosmolaut https://www.flickr.com/photos/helico/ Strong enough? by clement127 https://www.flickr.com/photos/clement127/ Wood-stone buffer-stop by Karwik https://www.flickr.com/photos/karwik/ Scared Minifig by z Q https://www.flickr.com/photos/sixthlie/ [ExoSuit}- On Mars by clement127 https://www.flickr.com/photos/clement127/