What Do You Need to Be a Senior Engineer? (Besides Coding Skills)
How to land yourself a senior engineer role, even if you don’t have years of software engineering experience.
If you've recently received a software engineering degree, or got a few years of experience under your belt, you may be questioning how long it’s actually going to take to become a senior engineer.
The answer to this question may be a little annoying to hear, as there’s not really a definite answer—it all depends on the company you’re applying to in addition to numerous other factors.
Just because you have plenty of experience doesn’t automatically mean you’re ready to be a senior engineer. Likewise, having limited experience doesn’t mean it’s impossible to become a senior engineer.
We’ve seen many software engineers that only have two years of experience get senior roles because they were truly at that level. We’ve also seen candidates with extensive engineering experience fail to get senior roles.
Hiring senior employees is a really important decision for any company. It’s a big investment that can have a substantial impact on team morale and dynamics—especially if the wrong person is hired.
Here are some of the main skills you need to be a senior engineer:
Write and communicate clearly
Senior engineers should be able to clearly communicate their experience and skills.
They’ll be able to easily explain a number of tasks that make up a day in the life of a software engineer such as technical specifications, design documents and job tickets.
Explain complex technical concepts
You should be able to clearly explain technical concepts to people who may not have the same software knowledge as you.
Typically, people in senior management won’t have much technical knowledge, but they are the ones making decisions. As a senior manager, you need to be able to explain your points in ways that make business sense, but are free of jargon and unnecessary technical complexities.
Leadership skills
A lot of the candidates who landed senior engineer roles with limited experience had experience in leading teams. As a senior engineer you’ll need to know how to assume a leadership position and break large projects up into smaller, actionable steps. You’ll also have to be a supportive and motivational leader who can help your team deliver fantastic results.
Craft project proposals
At the start of a project, it will be up to the senior engineers to craft a proposal based on everyone’s contributions. This can involve having meetings with stakeholders to gather requirements, and getting important people within a company to buy-in to the project your team is proposing.
Support product decisions
Senior engineers should also be able to support product decisions. This will include creating accurate estimates for the time and resources needed for each project, and the ability to point out any roadblocks that could arise.
Update stakeholders on project’s progress
When you’re in senior roles, you’ll have responsibility over the projects you work on and it will be up to you to keep stakeholders updated on the progress. This may include hosting monthly presentations that highlight successes and roadblocks in a project and how it can affect different stakeholders.
Network
You should be an excellent communicator and easily able to network with people in different teams, as well as people outside of your company.
Encourage feedback
To be an efficient manager, you have to be able to encourage your team to give feedback and share their opinions, even if they may be negative. If you do face negative feedback, it’s important to take it gracefully, and find constructive means of improvement.
Educate themselves
Even after becoming a senior engineer, the learning should never stop. You should always be looking for ways to educate yourself and your team, whether this is through organised training sessions, skill-swapping or away days to allow your team to grow.
Mentor employees
As a senior manager, you become responsible for the progress of the people you manage. You should be able to act as a mentor to help them in their role, no matter the stage they’re at.
You should also be able to help your team further their careers within the company and identify ways they could improve in order to get promoted.