Looking at levels.fyi and blind posts I can tell the TC one gets can be very different between junior and senior roles. So I'm curious what makes someone a senior? Do you have any advice for entry level SDEs to grow rapidly? How many yoe have you had when you became a senior? TC: 0 Yoe: 0
Have very strong computer architecture, O/S and debugging skills, i.e really understand how code executes on a processor, that will give you the foundation needed. From there get a wide breadth of experience.
Thanks. Would you say this is required for all engineers or mainly backend or system engineers?
All engineers, you are writing code for computers regardless of whether it’s front end, backend or embedded.
Senior is job and work place specific. You can be senior at company ABC and then be barely level 2 at google. To be senior at your current job...be the one everyone counts on! Meaning know ur job and other jobs around you very well and conduct ur self professionally so u become who ur boss can depend on. Those people usually become senior or get paid well.
Subject matter expertise and good judgement.
total compensation
Depends on which company. My previous company was all about showing off to get attention and sucking up to upper management to get promotion. I'm glad that I left that place.
You should search blind. This gets asked a lot. I disagree with most comments above about specific kinds of knowledge (I’m very senior fwiw). At F/G we understand that everyone has strength and weaknesses and we want people to play to their strengths. Starting from E6 we have archetypes (coding machine, fixer, generalist, xfn) each requiring different skill set. At E7+ it is not uncommon for engineers to not write any code at all. So start from figuring out your strengths and exercising that muscle. Don’t get stuck on thinking - oh I need low level OS knowledge or that language/framework. Focus on solving problems using the right tools and necessary tech.
Take life as it comes to you. Donot worry about what you should be doing to get to a certain level. Deliver product first, for about a year or so and then think about this. You will have better clarity and the comments that people are posting would make alot more sense to you.
Have genuine interest in coding and come up with easier ways to solve a problem. Be good at design - this is for after 3 years exp. Think of a problem from the user level and go down from that and start solving a problem. Leave your college ego out the main door and just be Keen to learn. I have 1+ years experience only. Sorry seniors, if I was inaccurate. This is just from what I had gathered.
Thanks. So would you say 3yoe is generally required for a senior role?
This is a really good answer IMO. The genuine interest in coding is very important from what I observe.