What I’ve Learned in 45 Years in the Software Industry

Re:What I’ve Learned in 45 Years in the Software Industry by closeparen on Wednesday January 06, 2021 @11:17PM (#25667225)

Two years is a long time to stay in one job. Two years is an eternity for a team's headcount not to grow. It's virtually certain that you'll be a mentor to several new hires in that time. You'll also have a long head start on understanding the codebase and tools relative to many others who will be working with them. If you're not some kind of leader at that point, something's wrong.

Unless you found one of those rare teams that stays together for the long haul, but the experience with such a special phenomenon should make it more than worth your while.

If L4s are not getting opportunity to lead, they are on a sinking ship anyway and the smart ones are LeetCoding.

(Obviously this all reflects the crazy economic moment of the last 10 years in Silicon Valley, but so does the level system you're critiquing).

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Re:What I’ve Learned in 45 Years in the Software Industry by watwut on Thursday January 07, 2021 @04:05AM (#25668876)

> Two years is an eternity for a team's headcount not to grow.

Teams do not expand until infinity. In fact, it is often better for teams to not expand.

If you are expected to be leader after two years, because the teams are expanding regardless of whether more people are needed and because everyone else is fresh new, then there is issue with managemet

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Re:What I’ve Learned in 45 Years in the Software Industry by closeparen on Thursday January 07, 2021 @06:07PM (#25678927)

Where do you think the crazy stock growth for the entire tech industry over the last 10 years is coming from? Having a massive backlog of productive opportunities, scaling up to execute on more and more of them in parallel.

I don’t expect that to last forever, but it’s the context that this system is built for.

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