What Companies Want
Explore the progression and expectations of engineering career levels, from junior to senior roles. Understand key skills, responsibilities, and how companies evaluate technical competence, execution, communication, and influence to guide your career development.
We'll cover the following...
We'll cover the following...
Titles based on experience level
There is some consensus on what to call each experience level. If we had to condense each:
- Junior: Learning best practices, executing under guidance. “Intermediate” developers also fall into this bucket by virtue of being not-senior
- Senior: Independent execution, mentorship of Juniors
- Staff: Team lead, defining best practices, architecture, and improving productivity
- Principal: Industry accomplishments, owning technology/roadmap;
- Large companies also have “Architect”, “Distinguished” and “Fellow” titles to reflect various degrees of super-seniority.
Dreyfus model of directed skill acquisition
This loosely maps to the five-stage Dreyfus model of Directed Skill Acquisition:
- Novice: Rigid adherence to rules or plans, little situational perception, and no (or limited) discretionary judgment
- Advanced Beginner: Guidelines for action based on attributes and