Issue 498 mid senior engineer blog

_posts/2025-06-10-mid-senior-engineer.html

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+---
+layout: post
+title: "Mid-Senior Engineer: A Journey of Self-Discovery"
+date: 2025-06-10
+author_name: Irina Kamalova
+author_role:
+blurb_img: /assets/images/blog/2025-06-10-mid-to-senior-engineer.png
+blurb_img_source:
+description: |
+  So, you've mastered the fundamentals, you're a reliable contributor, and the "Mid-Level
+  Engineer" title feels comfortable. But the ambition to grow, to take on more responsibility,
+  and to reach that coveted "Senior Engineer" status is bubbling beneath the surface. You're
+  not alone! The journey from Mid to Senior is a significant step in any tech professional's
+  career, and understanding the available pathways is crucial for strategic advancement.
+category: Career-progression
+---
+
+<div class="text-justify">
+  <p>
+    <i>So, you've mastered the fundamentals, you're a reliable contributor, and the "Mid-Level
+      Engineer" title feels comfortable. But the ambition to grow, to take on more responsibility,
+      and to reach that coveted "Senior Engineer" status is bubbling beneath the surface. You're
+      not alone! The journey from Mid to Senior is a significant step in any tech professional's
+      career, and understanding the available pathways is crucial for strategic advancement.</i>
+  </p>
+
+  <p>
+    I suggest to look at two strategies following the chart:
+  </p>
+
+  <div class="article-media">
+    <img class="img-fluid" src="/assets/images/blog/2025-06-10-mid-to-senior-engineer.png"
+      alt="mid-to-senior engineer chart">
+  </div>
+
+  <p>
+    <b>Path 1: Get a promotion within your company </b>
+  <ul>
+    <li><b>Goal: </b>Get a promotion within your company. </li>
+    <li><b>Plan:</b></li>
+  </ul>
+  <ol>
+
+    <b>
+      <li> Align your goal with your manager.</li>
+    </b>
+    <p>
+      This is the first and the most crucial step. Unless you come to the person who is responsible for your promotion
+      and ask for it there's no sense in preparing a plan with steps, enrolling in certifications for promotions, and
+      getting more projects on the plate without any advice.
+    </p>
+
+    <b>
+      <li> Set up exact steps with your manager.</li>
+    </b>
+    <p>
+      From the first step, you should learn what you need to do: where your gaps are, where your strengths are, where
+      your weaknesses are.
+    </p>
+
+    <b>
+      <li>Execute those steps</li>
+    </b>
+    <p>User SMART technique for each step. </p>
+
+    <b>
+      <li>Ensure recognition across teams.</li>
+    </b>
+    <p>It's crucial for promotion to be visible inside your company. The more you help others, the more scope you touch
+      and your knowledge increases. </p>
+
+    <b>
+      <li>Work for the review & feedback. </li>
+    </b>
+    <p>The important point is to know exact dates where reviews and promotion windows inside your company are happening.
+      Your review date is your hard deadline.
+      <b> ● Outcome (if your goal is not yet achieved): </b>
+    </p>
+  </ol>
+
+  <br>
+  <ol>
+    <div>
+      <b>
+        <li>Gather the feedback and create an actionable plan from it to close gaps.</li>
+      </b>
+      All those steps gave you an amazing experience. How could you do better? What is left for the next time? Through
+      several iterations you're guaranteed to get the promotion. However, it could be from 2 to 5 iterations with a
+      feedback loop.
+    </div>
+
+    <b>
+      <li>Go from 1 to 5 from the previous block again.</li>
+    </b>
+    <ul>
+      <li><b>Outcome (if your goal is achieved):</b> Promotion to Senior Engineer. </li>
+    </ul>
+    <b>Pass the Interview to obtain the Senior position </b>
+    <ul>
+      <li><b>Goal:</b>Pass the Interview to obtain the Senior position.
+      </li>
+      <li><b>Plan:</b>
+        <ul>
+          <li>
+            Apply for the interview.
+          </li>
+          <li>
+            Ask HR what stages and how to prepare; ask for feedback in advance.
+          </li>
+          <li>
+            Prepare for the interview.
+          </li>
+        </ul>
+      </li>
+      <li><b>Possible Outcomes:</b>
+         <ul>
+          <li>
+            Obtain the role in a company with a quicker feedback loop and get the promotion there. 
+          </li>
+          <li>
+             Analyse the feedback and apply for the next interview. (This outcome loops back to the "Plan" stage for passing the interview). 
+          </li>
+          <li>
+            …and, of course, obtain the role of Senior Engineer! 
+          </li>
+          </ul>
+      </li>
+    </ul>
+
+  </ol>
+  <p>
+    A couple of months ago, shortly after I released my fourth solo mobile game project on the Google Play Store, I
+    texted an old coworker of mine. He replied, “Oh, I didn’t know you were also a developer!” And I immediately tried
+    to convince him that I wasn’t. “I’m not a developer! I just… make games in my spare time. I learned it myself, but I
+    have so many things I don’t know. So, I’m not a developer,” I said, almost defensively. And he said, “Well, I’ve
+    never released any games, so there’s a lot you know that I don’t, and a lot I know that you don’t.” And that
+    conversation bugged me for a while. What makes a person a developer? Certainly I, an English major, couldn’t be one.
+    But I wanted to prove to myself why that was so.
+  </p>
+
+  <p>
+    After thinking long and hard about my excuses, and carefully separating myself from people who are “developers”, I
+    came to the conclusion that I had lots of gaps in the most basic things that any “developer” would know
+    instinctively. The thing is, I knew some of the terms I didn’t understand, but the biggest problem was that I didn’t
+    even know what I didn’t know. And that’s when I decided to join the mentorship program at Women Coding Community. In
+    our first session, Rajani successfully identified my gaps and suggested how I could improve them. She also told me
+    how important it was that I already had complete projects. She gave me what I couldn’t give myself - an honest,
+    experienced outside perspective. I had always been extremely self-critical, always focusing on what I lacked. With
+    her help, I managed to just stop and look at how far I’ve come, and appreciate the things I’ve accomplished. She
+    suggested that I take an algorithms and data structures course, which I did from various free online sources, and I
+    already feel much more comfortable.
+  </p>
+
+  <p>
+    Now, the great question: should you follow both paths simultaneously? It's up to you, however, the balanced model
+    will be to go through Path 1 for a year and if you've not succeeded go through Path 2 for the next year. The
+    iterative approach will lead you to the goal. However, the common trap for engineers is to try to do both paths at
+    the same time and it leads to burnout. One path can be the background while the other is the focus. Regular
+    interviews wouldn't hurt but be mindful of your time and remember that they were in the background path when you've
+    got a rejection.
+    I wish you the best of luck on your way!
+
+  </p>
+
+</div>