--- title: The Curse of the Senior Software Engineer | daily.dev description: The Curse of the Senior Software Engineer discusses the importance of titles in companies, how they determine pay ranges and allow for progression and... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/the-curse-of-the-senior-software-engineer-w0o7stboq twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: The Curse of the Senior Software Engineer | daily.dev og:description: The Curse of the Senior Software Engineer discusses the importance of titles in companies, how they determine pay ranges and allow for progression and... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/the-curse-of-the-senior-software-engineer-w0o7stboq og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/w0O7STbOQ.png og:image:alt: The Curse of the Senior Software Engineer og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # The Curse of the Senior Software Engineer **[Community Picks](https://daily.dev/sources/community)** · 9 min read · 78 upvotes · 9 comments ## Summary The Curse of the Senior Software Engineer discusses the importance of titles in companies, how they determine pay ranges and allow for progression and evaluation. It also explores the potential curse of staying in the same role for too long and offers two options for avoiding it: playing by the corporate rules or exiting the game completely. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@akoskm** · 3 upvotes > I've been wearing the Senior Software Engineer title for years now. I don't feel stuck with it. In many companies, I'd be considered a Principal engineer or a CTO, but I stopped caring. > > Running my own business, finding clients, and doing the technical things from the ground up, I could have picked any title from sales to management to CTO. > > Now, as I transition back to FTE, during interviews, I found that the best approach was to explain my responsibilities and let them decide what role I would play inside their organization. > > Btw, these role structures also vary between organizations. **@randomgenerator** · 2 upvotes > Titles ,esp in large orgs are somewhat important. They not only help in setting clear career paths for employees, encouraging motivation and retention by offering visible goals, but they also streamline the process of evaluating performance against predefined standards. > > This clarity benefits both the employees, who gain a sense of direction and accomplishment, and the organization, which can more easily identify and reward contributions, ensuring talent is recognized and nurtured effectively. Wdyt? **@eyoung** · 2 upvotes > Good Post! I have 33+ years of experience and I'm a Dev Team Lead, I've been in this role - supervisor/line manager for decades at various employers and at this point I've come to the conclusion that whatever people look for to promote... I don't have it. Could be a style thing or how I think or...? But whatever it is I don't show it. There is no upward path at my current employer, the only way to grow might be to find another position. Hummm **@antoniovpires** · 1 upvotes > That's very interesting. We programmers usually ignore the importance of improving soft skills that may impact our careers deeply. **@idoshamun** · 1 upvotes > Some developers would like to only code and are actually interested in keeping their IC position. Leadership positions take you away from full time coding which is not always desired. Something to keep in mind ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Don’t just attend KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon, Merge Forward your experience\!](https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-just-attend-kubecon-cloudnativecon-merge-forward-your-experience--l0rpp73x8) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Announcing H2 2026 KCDs](https://daily.dev/posts/announcing-h2-2026-kcds-m96goajm1) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Two months of Open Community Groups](https://daily.dev/posts/two-months-of-open-community-groups-asf52zhbs) · CNCF · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [CNCF Unveils Schedule for KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon Europe 2026](https://daily.dev/posts/cncf-unveils-schedule-for-kubecon-cloudnativecon-europe-2026-ikhcoa5cb) · CNCF · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [CNCF Debuts KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon Japan 2026 Schedule](https://daily.dev/posts/cncf-debuts-kubecon-cloudnativecon-japan-2026-schedule-xp5pyudub) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#career](https://daily.dev/tags/career) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/the-curse-of-the-senior-software-engineer-w0o7stboq) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"The Curse of the Senior Software Engineer","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-curse-of-the-senior-software-engineer-w0o7stboq","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-curse-of-the-senior-software-engineer-w0o7stboq"},"datePublished":"2024-03-15T14:34:17.429Z","dateModified":"2024-05-09T09:28:47.883Z","description":"The Curse of the Senior Software Engineer discusses the importance of titles in companies, how they determine pay ranges and allow for progression and...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/d76e1244e7d6dcc0607fad720cebbe6b?_a=AQAEufR","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/d76e1244e7d6dcc0607fad720cebbe6b?_a=AQAEufR","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Community Picks","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Community Picks","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1655817725/logos/community","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/community"},"commentCount":9,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-curse-of-the-senior-software-engineer-w0o7stboq","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":78},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":9}],"keywords":"career","timeRequired":"PT9M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Community Picks","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/community"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"The Curse of the Senior Software Engineer"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-curse-of-the-senior-software-engineer-w0o7stboq","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"I’ve been wearing the Senior Software Engineer title for years now. I don’t feel stuck with it. In many companies, I’d be considered a Principal engineer or a CTO, but I stopped caring.\nRunning my own business, finding clients, and doing the technical things from the ground up, I could have picked any title from sales to management to CTO.\nNow, as I transition back to FTE, during interviews, I found that the best approach was to explain my responsibilities and let them decide what role I would play inside their organization.\nBtw, these role structures also vary between organizations.","datePublished":"2024-03-20T17:35:52.844Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/w0O7STbOQ#c-rwTdrpCru","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Ákos K","url":"https://daily.dev/akoskm","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/3111627?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":3}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Titles ,esp in large orgs are somewhat important. They not only help in setting clear career paths for employees, encouraging motivation and retention by offering visible goals, but they also streamline the process of evaluating performance against predefined standards.\nThis clarity benefits both the employees, who gain a sense of direction and accomplishment, and the organization, which can more easily identify and reward contributions, ensuring talent is recognized and nurtured effectively. Wdyt?","datePublished":"2024-03-19T18:32:22.764Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/w0O7STbOQ#c-QtE5Nrttu","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Michael Brown","url":"https://daily.dev/randomgenerator","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--Cttk5CEn--/f_auto/v1707408503/avatars/avatar_k653IPmUXW3bsOxt7FP5b"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Good Post! I have 33+ years of experience and I’m a Dev Team Lead, I’ve been in this role - supervisor/line manager for decades at various employers and at this point I’ve come to the conclusion that whatever people look for to promote… I don’t have it. Could be a style thing or how I think or…? But whatever it is I don’t show it. There is no upward path at my current employer, the only way to grow might be to find another position. Hummm","datePublished":"2024-03-20T14:40:41.113Z","dateModified":"2024-03-20T14:41:08.026Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/w0O7STbOQ#c-eO2Iexmtb","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Evan Young","url":"https://daily.dev/eyoung","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--XunRJpDX--/f_auto/v1762793954/avatars/avatar_Vm1vw9EGTkV8xCvGaCMtP?_a=BAMAK+ZW0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"That’s very interesting. We programmers usually ignore the importance of improving soft skills that may impact our careers deeply.","datePublished":"2024-03-19T15:00:13.411Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/w0O7STbOQ#c-UMSKc2jz2","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Antônio Pires","url":"https://daily.dev/antoniovpires","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/58229727?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Some developers would like to only code and are actually interested in keeping their IC position. Leadership positions take you away from full time coding which is not always desired. Something to keep in mind","datePublished":"2024-03-21T06:45:27.292Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/w0O7STbOQ#c-ZRPoaF9cd","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Ido Shamun","url":"https://daily.dev/idoshamun","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s---xy_OAwk--/f_auto,q_auto/v1703781380/avatars/avatar_28849d86070e4c099c877ab6837c61f0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}}]} ```