Mid-level to senior engineer

Stage 1 · Lesson 1 of 8

Seniority as scope, not years

Seniority as scope, with a clear bar

is the size of the problems you are trusted with, and how far your decisions reach. It grows in steps: a task, a feature, a system, a team, then several teams. A mid-level engineer reliably delivers a feature that someone else has already defined.

A senior engineer is handed a whole system or a goal, and is expected to work out what the work even is. Years of experience only matter because they usually come with larger scope. Everything else in this roadmap is about growing the size of problem you can own.

Common trapthinking that doing more of the same work, faster, adds up to seniority. It does not: ten features of the same size are still feature scope.

A question to check yourself, an AI practice session and 1 cheat sheet entry come with the full roadmap. Unlock

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  • Engineering Ladders

    Compare your scope with the next level across technology, people and influence

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