Seniority League Session 2 - Jack of All, Master of One

seniority_league-session_2.md

• Whenever you hear "jack of all trades", remember that the full quote is important:

  • "A jack of all trades is a master of none, but is often better than a master of one."

  • We can't dive deep on all parts of an application. Don't stray from the areas you love to work on—those skills will always be valuable. But take every chance to work on other parts of the code, especially the areas that scare or confuse you—those are where you will often learn the most.
  • Even things you know well will become fuzzy over time unless you're working on them every day. Google and AI are you friend here; often all it takes is a quick search or question to help remind you of how something works, which can get you to the root cause (or at least the right area) much faster.

• "Owning" a product

  • Means caring about every part, even the boring parts. Even the configuration. (Especially the configuration.)
    • Every part is important to someone, even if it seems less relevant to you.
  • Truly partnering with the other groups you work with.
  • Being a steward of your team and technologies. Defend them, praise them publicly, etc.

• What takes a senior to the next level

  • Learning the patterns: development, scrum, etc. so you can help unstick things. Generally when things are stuck, it's easy to triage once you can identify which part of the pattern is stuck.
  • Identifying potential issues ahead of time or calling out things someone else might skip. Raise a flag, but—crucially—don't try to fix them on your own. Bring it to the team. You can bring suggestions too, but it's best to solve most things as a team, even if you end up doing the work. Awareness helps everyone.
  • Mindful refactoring when possible as part of tech debt work. Readability gives code longevity and maintainability; follow and refactor to design patterns, SOLID principles, and the rule of three.
    • This work can often be unnoticed, but it's a skill that can help everyone:
      • You to understand functionality better and write better code the first time
      • The team to skill up in an area faster by having clean code
      • The organization by reducing issues and increasing the speed of fixes
  • Personal organization and follow through. (Checklists help a lot here.)

• Helpful books & resources

  • The Manager's Path by Camille Fournier
    • This is targeted at engineering managers, but I've found it to be helpful for senior developers as well.
  • Rapid Development by Steve McConnell