I also had the pleasure of arguing for a team members promotion once. The domain our team of 5 worked in was pretty challenging (heavy algorithmic stuff). I spent a year trying to train up my team, and although they improved, I still felt like I had to do the hard stuff myself. With the exception of one developer. For example if a project was particularly hairy or the time frame was too short, it was either me or him doing it. And I couldn't give him all the hard stuff so I ended doing a lot more coding than I had time for.
I went to my boss and said, X is carrying my team, he does more than any two other developers combined. He needs a raise, I can't lose him! And he got it.
To me that's what senior boils down, they can do the hard stuff, they keep the ball moving forward, and not get bogged down in the irrelevant stuff.
I went to my boss and said, X is carrying my team, he does more than any two other developers combined. He needs a raise, I can't lose him! And he got it.
To me that's what senior boils down, they can do the hard stuff, they keep the ball moving forward, and not get bogged down in the irrelevant stuff.