Hello, and welcome!
My name is Benoit. I have been a software engineer for the past eight and a half years. I stayed at my previous (and first) company for seven and a half years, then I joined a new one in early 2022.
This article comes from a recent self-reflection on the things I wish I had started doing earlier in my career and the things I wish I had done differently.
What I am sharing here may be useful to any junior to mid-level developer who wishes to improve and progress toward the title of senior and beyond.
Table of Contents · My Career Evolution · Things I Wish I Had Started Doing Earlier: ??? Write a Work Log ??? Leave the Comfort Zone ??? Be Curious About Other Teams and Projects ??? Join the On-call Team ??? Change Teams ??? Write Blog Posts · Things I Wish I Had Done Differently: ??? Be Careful When Introducing New Things to the Team ??? Do Not Let Your Emotions Take Over in Front of the Team ??? Dip a Foot Into the Hiring Market · End Thoughts
My Career Evolution
Before diving into the main subject, here is my career evolution:
- I interned for three months at a startup (which quickly became a scale-up) company.
- After that, I did a full year of work-study, spending three months at school and nine months at work.
- Then, I got hired as a full-time software engineer and kept this title for three and a half years.
- Quickly after the introduction of the tech career ladder, I got promoted to senior software engineer. I kept this title for three years until I left the company, at which point the tech teams accounted for approximately 200 people.
- I joined as a software engineer 2 at a company with thousands of tech employees. Despite the title downgrade at the second company (see Big Tech Hiring is Conservative — But Why?), I have been trying to keep the same responsibilities (and more) as before.