Ask HN: Are senior engineers not senior anymore?

7 aristofun 10 6/13/2025, 7:30:37 PM

Do you feel like SWE title has been devalued a lot lately?

Does it look to you that many of today's senior SWE would barely pass middle bar 10 years ago?

With erosion of junior (and effectively middle) titles these days everyone is senior now.

Yet the dispersion in skills, experience is outrageous. Even within the same organization.

Why do you think this is?

Comments (10)

yodsanklai · 1d ago

Is there such a title as "senior SWE"? many tech companies don't have such titles and if they do, it's definitely not standardized in any way.

There are some staff SWEs in company A who wouldn't pass probation period in more selective company B. And you have junior engineers who are much more knowledgeable and productive than seniors.

I don't know why anyone would care about these titles. If they want to compare themselves to their peers to boost their ego, salary is a better metrics.

aristofun · 1d ago

In most mid to large size companies there is a ladder with similar titles that are more or less similar in salary.

I appreciate your comment, but it doesn't really address my question.

BeetleB · 1d ago

Concrete examples would really help.

Consider this:

If someone responded with a simple "Yes", would that satisfy you?

What if someone responded with a simple "No"? Would that satisfy you?

Don't expect them to be forthcoming with details if you haven't provided any?

aristofun · 1d ago

This is not a leetcode problem, it's an open question :)

BeetleB · 23h ago

Open questions require more thought from your interlocutors, and they tend to prefer that you participate at the same level. Asking questions has almost no cognitive load. Answering them (especially open ended ones) have a significant amount of cognitive load.

People will engage more if you are putting in the effort. Right now you have at least two comments hinting that you need to define what you are talking about. Yet you have not done that.

aristofun · 18h ago

You add zero value to the discussion yet sound very smart. Are you a politician or manager? :)

napolux · 1d ago

To say "senior are no more" first you have to define what a senior engineer is. After 20 years in the industry I'm still not sure about it.

I have my own definition which might differ from yours

aristofun · 1d ago

Did you notice that _your definition_ diverged from current industry definition over the past 10 years?

jedberg · 1d ago

This might interest you: https://www.levels.fyi/blog/what-are-career-levels-ladders.h...

JojoFatsani · 22h ago

Senior SRE is like a 1st Lt these days