Are you senior developer ready?

The developer community consists of numerous articles on steps to becoming a senior developer. However, many of them tend to focus on the big picture concepts. In this article, I aim to provide a comprehensive list of practical tips you can follow. I personally followed this list to become a senior developer without meeting the years of experience requirement.

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First, a leap from a junior developer to a senior developer makes up a long list of technical skills to differentiate yourself.

• Spend time learning security vulnerabilities and how to prevent them.

• Write readable, maintainable, and scalable code.

• Become a fire fighter. When urgent bugs are reported, remediate them efficiently.

• Deeply review code and provide useful feedback.

• Become proficient in researching new technologies and developing POCs (proof of concept).

• Come up with creative and clever solutions that can be used company wide.

• Create or refine coding standards and style guides.

• Understand different types of testing methods.

• Place testing rules and group testing meetings to production bugs.

• Learn how to run mob sessions and pair programming meetings effectively and efficiently.

• Have a strong understanding of the software architecture and the release process used by your team.

• Always know the pros and cons of the method/technology that your project is using. Never say, “That’s how it’s always been.”

• Contribute to the company wiki pages and write new documentations as needed.

• Be up to date on the latest technology news and trends. Subscribing to newsletters is a great way to achieve this.

• Mentor junior developers to provide them with resources and opportunities to improve. Learn to delegate your coding tasks.

• Communicate with stakeholders (keep in mind the technical limitations). Learn to estimate and avoid over-promising.

On top of these technical skills, you should also improve your personal skills.

• Become reliable, reachable, and consistent. Stay true to your word. Respond to messages in a timely manner.

• Be precise in your speech. Avoid misunderstanding between your teammates.

• Learn how to lead a meeting. Make sure that all opinions are heard.

• Learn how to share your opinion. Be open to receiving feedback.

• Learn to work in a fast-pace environment without distractions.

• Encourage others to do their best and provide support when they are struggling.

• Be optimistic and positive in meetings and try to add a smile.

Lastly, create a brag document to provide a comprehensive list of your contributions to show your manager when asking for a promotion. Best of luck!