You're not a senior engineer until you've worked on a legacy project

Re:You're not a senior engineer until you've worked on a leg... by __turbobrew__ on Monday February 17, 2025 @08:37PM (#43085193)

> I can usually tell what type of type of experience devs have by the snarky, dismissive responses I've gotten on various internet forums over the last two decades.

I see this constantly on HN and have had to learn to not engage with those conversations. It is like some people have never had to run a project under any sort of external constraints like head count restrictions, layoffs, inheriting a system which you didn’t write, or awkward organizational structures.

Some will scream until their ears bleed that there is only one optimal way to do things and if you aren’t doing things that way you are a incompetent chump — totally disregarding the reality that people have to work with.

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Re:You're not a senior engineer until you've worked on a leg... by throwaway2037 on Monday February 17, 2025 @08:53PM (#43085271)

The real miracle is when you see a teammate who can still perform well under these insane constraints. I have seen it a couple of times in my career. They still find a way to write "good enough" code or write "good enough" docs. It was inspiring.

I would say the same about a sales person who can still manage to have a great year even when the (their) market is cratering. Again, I have seen it a few times, and it always impresses me... watching them pull a rabbit out of the hat!

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Re:You're not a senior engineer until you've worked on a leg... by darkwater on Tuesday February 18, 2025 @04:12AM (#43087629)

Or the other typical HN solution to this: just leave that toxic company and go somewhere else! (Maybe it was valid during ZIRP, but not now)

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