Hey y’all, I have a couple of questions in response to Episode 31, “You can only code so fast.” Maybe they’d make interesting followup discussion.
The question addressed is “what comes after senior?” You mentioned at the end of the episode that you don’t necessarily need to be looking to move beyond senior, but the gist of the convo implied that most devs most of the time would. I want to dig into that a bit more:
- You mentioned the idea "I can't get paid any more to keep doing what I'm doing right now." I’m privileged to be paid pretty well. Am I a crazy outlier that I don't think I need more money than I'm making right now?
- Do you think that most developers will always want to continue to be challenged in new ways? Do most developers never reach a point where they say "what I'm doing here is great, I want to continue doing what I'm doing in different arenas and for different people?"
As far as when people do want a new challenge, the two categories you mostly discussed were deeper IC computer-science-problem focus, and people management. You did mention the term "architect" in passing, but didn’t dig into it—that was surprising to me. I will say I totally reject the “enterprise architect” ivory-tower role as uninteresting and unhelpful. But there seem to be a variety of technical (not people) leadership roles like it. For example, at our consultancy we have project technical leads, and mentoring and setting department direction are other options. I have a lot of hope for technical leadership for my own career; is it obvious to y'all that this category doesn't meet this need for most people?