junior to senior programmer

Question

How many years of experience are required in order to pass from a junior to a senior level programmer?

Answer 1

I'd say how much learning is required instead of experience.

Answer 2

There isn't a definitive answer, of course, it depends on the individual and the company. I have seen new programmers get to the point were I would consider them senior level in 3-4 years and others that I would still consider "junior" level after 20+ years. Although there are many things that differentiate what most would consider junior and senior programmers, experience is a large part of the equation and perhaps the most difficult to accelerate. It is usually difficult to justify a senior level title with less than 3-5 years experience, some places want 7-10 years experience before doling out a senior level title.

Answer 3

As many years as it takes to learn what you need to know.

Answer 4

It's not really a matter of time, it's a matter of experience and what you can contribute to the job. A senior programmer's expected to be able to turn their experience into business value, whether that's mentoring other members of the team, pulling the team and the project towards higher quality code, interacting more with the non-programming aspects of the project - such as QA, sales, or technical direction.

A senior programmer should lead by example, keeping their skills up to date and bringing this new knowledge to the rest of the team.

Answer 5

The difference between a senior and junior programmer is quite subjective and depends on the company. In one place they may call you senior considering your current experience but in other place, they just think of you as a junior, because they seek a different skill set for a senior than you have now.

Answer 6

It depends entirely on where you're working. For one thing there is no fixed meaning on what "senior" is. "Senior" may simply denote a certain number of years of experience on a HR-defined job spec. It may mean a certain number of years with that company (I know of a company that never hired seniors externally--all of them were mid-level programemrs who had been promoted).

My definition of a senior programmer includes the following job functions:

• mentoring junior and mid-level programmers;
• code reviews;
• high-level design and estimates;
• low-level design and estimates;
• liaising with the business;
• limited team leadership if required;
• assess new technologies, languages and software; and
• criticque current implementations and provide recommendations on what can be improved.

Additionaly, such a person should have initiative, be able to work without supervision and be a proficient programmer in whatever language(s) are being used.

Some people may get there after 3-5 years of experience. Some may take longer. Some may never get there in spite of whatever title they have.

Answer 7

The difference is, in part, skill. Longevity doesn't always lead to senior chops, from what I have seen. More often than not, the bigger part of it is motivation. There is an ability for senior developers to motivate themselves, as well as their junior counterparts, that is extremely valuable.

Some of the bullet points I look for when hiring:

• Willingness to learn. Stays current on trends and upcoming features. Always willing to try something.
• Willingness to admit to mistakes. Admitting to not knowing something. Being able to say not only that a mistake was made, but being able to realize what benefits come from learning from that mistake.
• Ability to lead. Can lead by example. Has a confidence that instills confidence in others without being cocky. Works with peers and can step up as needed.
• Team player. Understands the importance of team dynamics. Can help unify ideas.

Of course, the obvious comes into play, as well. I have not really seen any candidates that filled the mold of a senior level developer under about four years experience. I think that it is twofold. Part of it is that there is a required amount of time to practically apply knowledge to a position, and the other being that it takes time to build responsibility that lands the large and more challenging projects that a senior developer should be able to handle.

Answer 8

One major difference lies in the way they do "hacks" (as in "bad hacks") in the code. When senior developers write hacks they isolate them so that they're easy to undo later if it's necessary. Junior developers tend not to do that, and then build the app on top of those hacks.

Junior developers swallow exceptions a lot more than senior developers do.

One way to distinguish junior and senior developers is look for evidence that they understand something important but not necessarily part of everyday experience. Concurrency and security are good topics for making the separation, because when you're new to development, most of your knowledge in these areas is academic. Only after you've been doing development for some length of time do you start to gain experience with weird threadsafety issues, unexpected security problems, etc.

So I'll "me too" the other respondents. It's less about years than it is about knowledge, though on average the two go together.

Answer 9

There are two episodes of software engineering podcasts cover this topic and I think it's quite good.

episode1 episode2

Answer 10

Experience is a riverbed,
Its source hidden, forever flowing:
Its entrance, the root of the world,
The Way moves within it:
Draw upon it; it will not run dry.

basically, when you don't have to ask this question anymore, you will know.

Answer 11

I think it isn't about years as much as dedication, quality and an overall view of a project.

I myself for instance see myself as a junior\mid programmer, although for about the last two years i have been programming approximately 14 hours a day (midweeks). This involved my work, my school, and my self-educative hobbies. (Ofcourse i'm not counting the weekends becouse i have other responsibilities. But even in those spare hours (without going out ect...) i'm coding).

Could a programmer, only coding part-time for about 2\3 days a week be considered a senior after 3-7 years? Or could I be after 2?

I think it's just a level of comparison between the other coders whom you work with.

Answer 12

There certainly is a continuum between a junior and senior developer. Hopefully we all continually improve regardless of our title. Here is my attempt at a list of what a senior developer can do but maybe not a junior:

• Design elegant and maintainable solutions accurately and efficiently
• Lead projects from start to finish with little supervision or assistance needed
• Offer multiple solutions to a given problem and offer the advantages/disadvantages of each
• Has competency in a wide range of skills sets including new and legacy technologies
• Adapt and apply the knowledge gained from experiencing the successes and failures of several projects
• Predict time and effort to implement solutions more accurately
• Can mentor and teach other members of the team