The surprising moment a Senior Developer mistook me for one of their own, and lessons for how I did it.

As a junior developer, I never imagined I'd be mistaken for a seasoned pro - but that's exactly what happened when a newcomer to the team observed my contributions and assumed I was a senior.

A little backstory…

My first-ever role as Junior Developer was a very exciting yet daunting time for me.

I was put into a team of great people who I immediately looked up to. Almost straight away I was given small tasks to work on where most of the time I felt like I had no clue what I was doing, but I tried my best and over time started settling into my role.

Now, by nature, I’m quite introverted, so it was easy for me to take a backseat in meetings and discussions, where I would simply just observe what was going on.

Although I had opinions about certain topics about upcoming work or technical solutions, I didn’t quite have the courage to speak up.

Then one day everything changed.

Speak and you shall be heard

I was having a one-to-one with my line manager at the time, and he gave me feedback about my progress. He mentioned that although I was doing a good job, he felt that I should speak up more.

That was all I needed to change the way I was approaching everything.

From that moment on, I made it my mission for my voice to be heard.

In meetings, I made sure I always gave feedback when asked. If I had a question, I would ask it. If I had a suggestion, I would say it. If someone else had a question, and I knew the answer, I would answer it.

The more I spoke, the more I was listened to.

The more people that listened to me, the more others started to value what I had to say.

Becoming a subject matter expert

The next thing that started happening was that people got so used to me talking about our product and giving suggestions and feedback, they started asking for my opinions on everything.

Now don’t get me wrong, I was no expert. In fact, far from it.

But if I didn’t know the answer I would go out of my way to find it. I studied the documentation we had for our application and started writing about topics where I felt there were gaps.

I researched the business and made sure I knew as much as I could about our products.

I wrote down what applications different departments took care of and which stakeholders were involved.

I put together a presentation for non-technical stakeholders where I presented the key parts of our application and how it worked, including our React components, our APIs and our release process.

Effectively, I became a perceived subject matter expert by simply finding answers to common questions.

Fooling a Senior

Sadly one day, my line manager left the company, which I knew would have a big impact on the team because he was a well-accomplished Senior and leader.

Although I was quite upset at first, I knew this meant I would have to step up even more as I didn’t want my team to feel lost for too long.

I decided to get more involved with the decision-making. Again, I wasn’t always confident in what I was doing - but I had a voice now, so my opinions mattered.

Eventually, a new Senior Developer joined my team to replace my manager. He was quiet and chose to observe how we worked as a team before getting involved.

Noticing his quietness, I reached out to him to ask how was feeling about the team. We had a conversation and he asked me about my role, so I told him I was a junior dev.

He was shocked.

He told me that in his over 15 years as a developer, he had never seen a junior developer act the way I did.

He thought I was a Senior Developer - I laughed.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, but he made it clear that everything I was doing was the signs and signals of a senior developer.

Here’s what he observed and how you too can act like a senior:

How to Act Like a Senior

1. Speak up 📣

Senior developers don’t sit in the shadows.

They speak up in meetings and contribute to discussions. They believe there’s no such thing as a stupid question. If there’s something you don’t understand, don’t be afraid to ask it.

The more you speak up, the more people will value what you have to say.

2. Know your product 🔎

Senior developers are subject matter experts of their products.

They can answer questions about it and explain how it works to others. You don’t have to know all the answers, but you should at least know how to find the answers.

Senior developers are experts at asking questions and finding answers.

3. Improve documentation for others 📖

Senior developers write documentation that lets others find answers to problems.

If someone asks you something, and you find the answer, it’s likely that question will come up again. Therefore, where possible, document solutions to problems so that you can direct others to that information in the future.

4. Always try to unblock yourself first 🙅

When faced with a new problem, senior developers will always try to unblock themselves first.

This could be through online research, asking another team member or even reaching out to another department.

It’s all part of the problem-solving process, if you can solve problems for yourself, you’re more likely to be able to solve other people’s problems.

5. Lead without being led 🧑‍🏫

Good Senior developers show leadership. As a junior, you might not think of yourself as a leader, but there are many things you can do that demonstrate leadership.

• You can make presentations for non-technical stakeholders that show them things at a high level they may not understand.
• You can think of ways to improve your application and share those ideas with your team.
• You can help onboard a new team member who joins the team by showing them your team’s ways of working.

No matter what it is, if you can lead without being led, you’ll be on the right track.

So there you have it. I tricked a senior dev into thinking I was more senior than I was at the time, and it had nothing to do with my programming skills.

It had everything to do with the way I acted.

If you can think and act like a Senior, you can grow more confident as a Junior and become more well-rounded.

And who knows, the road to Senior may end up being shorter than you think!

All the best until next time.

From your fellow ever-growing dev,

Cherlock Code

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