--- title: How to Become a Senior Software Engineer? I hired 1,000... description: Drawing on experience hiring over a thousand software engineers, the author argues that seniority is not about years of experience but a mindset shift. The... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/wyyajwifq twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: How to Become a Senior Software Engineer? I hired 1,000 of them. | daily.dev og:description: Drawing on experience hiring over a thousand software engineers, the author argues that seniority is not about years of experience but a mindset shift. The... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/wyyajwifq og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/wYyaJWifQ.png og:image:alt: Post cover image 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. # How to Become a Senior Software Engineer? I hired 1,000 of them. **[Matt Watson](https://daily.dev/sources/julykdjscrvylrpeu00zc)** · [@mattwatsonkc](https://daily.dev/mattwatsonkc) · 154 upvotes · 20 comments ## Summary Drawing on experience hiring over a thousand software engineers, the author argues that seniority is not about years of experience but a mindset shift. The clearest signal of a senior engineer is whether they pause to ask 'why' before solving a problem. Beyond technical skill, senior engineers think about outcomes and customers, not just code quality. Practical advice includes habitually questioning the problem before acting and deliberately expanding scope by owning projects end-to-end rather than waiting for tickets. ## 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. **@elmarchavez** · 9 upvotes > > ***The difference is never the years. It is whether they figured out that the job is bigger than the code.*** > > Man, this is very useful. If I were to add something, asking "why" often lets higher ups see you as someone who genuinely cares about the project. It is a sign that someone is trying to understand what he/she is trying to solve. Again, thank you for this wonderful article, couldn't have better said it myself. **@sikandarkhan56** · 9 upvotes > This is the most useful blog I have read the this week. I really love how you defined a senior engineer as a person who can do multiple tasks, especially ask "why". Now a days people judge an engineer on the basis of code only- which is a bottleneck. Very useful information 🙌 **@alx\_dsz** · 4 upvotes > In my opinion the most valuable lessons that make people 'senior' is taking ownership and responsibility - this needs engagement and commitment for longer term in order to be able to see the fruits of your decisions with full clarity. > > And with a grain of salt ofc - it's not only about asking 'why' just because we read that it's what seniors do, we must understand the reason of asking 'why'. There is a thin line between being able to pose valuable questions and becoming a Captain Obvious ;) **@notzero** · 3 upvotes > Codex: I recommend the use of xxxx library. > Me (not a 'senior dev' but a senior): Why do we need to introduce a depency with a repo that has 1k lines of code maintained by a solo developer in our core feature? > Codex: Got it, I will write the whole thing myself. **@goddino** · 2 upvotes > I totally agree > > Many companies wrongly consider people junior just because they work for less than 7 years ## 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 --- Tags: [#career](https://daily.dev/tags/career), [#leadership](https://daily.dev/tags/leadership) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/wyyajwifq) ```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":"DiscussionForumPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https://daily.dev/posts/wyyajwifq","headline":"How to Become a Senior Software Engineer? I hired 1,000 of them.","text":"Shared: How to Become a Senior Software Engineer? I hired 1,000 of them.","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/wyyajwifq","datePublished":"2026-07-01T02:54:54.003Z","dateModified":"2026-07-02T12:17:31.298Z","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Matt Watson","url":"https://daily.dev/mattwatsonkc","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--LAL3c6nb--/f_auto/v1782874581/avatars/avatar_JULYKDJSCrvYLRpEu00ZC?_a=BAMAMicg0","description":"Serial Entrepreneur, Startup CTO, Podcaster, Startup Advisor","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"EndorseAction"},"userInteractionCount":650}},"image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--1KxV4ohY--/f_auto/v1722860400/public/Placeholder%2007","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":154},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":20}],"sharedContent":{"@type":"WebPage","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/dvTA3NXzy"},"comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"The difference is never the years. It is whether they figured out that the job is bigger than the code.\n\nMan, this is very useful. If I were to add something, asking “why” often lets higher ups see you as someone who genuinely cares about the project. It is a sign that someone is trying to understand what he/she is trying to solve. Again, thank you for this wonderful article, couldn’t have better said it myself.","datePublished":"2026-07-02T08:26:40.125Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/wYyaJWifQ#c-TTDq9NbzL","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Elmar Chavez","url":"https://daily.dev/elmarchavez","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--7PjH979T--/f_auto/v1780994221/avatars/avatar_bK85rJb2OXXID2LX2wi5y?_a=BAMAMiWQ0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":9}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"This is the most useful blog I have read the this week. I really love how you defined a senior engineer as a person who can do multiple tasks, especially ask “why”. Now a days people judge an engineer on the basis of code only- which is a bottleneck. Very useful information 🙌","datePublished":"2026-07-01T15:36:52.928Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/wYyaJWifQ#c-OE7Ay4TWr","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Sikandar Khan","url":"https://daily.dev/sikandarkhan56","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--F6gR7EHC--/f_auto/v1782892974/avatars/avatar_8rrkDoZtwC8IYlg7yT40f?_a=BAMAMicg0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":9}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"In my opinion the most valuable lessons that make people ‘senior’ is taking ownership and responsibility - this needs engagement and commitment for longer term in order to be able to see the fruits of your decisions with full clarity.\nAnd with a grain of salt ofc - it’s not only about asking ‘why’ just because we read that it’s what seniors do, we must understand the reason of asking ‘why’. There is a thin line between being able to pose valuable questions and becoming a Captain Obvious ;)","datePublished":"2026-07-03T14:46:21.547Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/wYyaJWifQ#c-BrK3MBOSM","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"alx","url":"https://daily.dev/alx_dsz","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocK27JxxI9GyvuY0vk7NgjHzYn6YthC6MLcXppn4X6JlodQZeQ=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":4}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Codex: I recommend the use of xxxx library.\nMe (not a ‘senior dev’ but a senior): Why do we need to introduce a depency with a repo that has 1k lines of code maintained by a solo developer in our core feature?\nCodex: Got it, I will write the whole thing myself.","datePublished":"2026-07-03T09:00:11.834Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/wYyaJWifQ#c-JlTHrMfHx","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Javier Notzero","url":"https://daily.dev/notzero","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocI3p25PCiTkf2LIn9IeM8AACLjkolwV5jRcqyKNlGYAzCM2jvU=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":3}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"I totally agree\nMany companies wrongly consider people junior just because they work for less than 7 years","datePublished":"2026-07-05T14:32:25.337Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/wYyaJWifQ#c-FCLeLXgQ0","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Lorenzo Pellegrini","url":"https://daily.dev/goddino","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--CtMcHTVQ--/f_auto/v1783066012/avatars/avatar_WPcsOkjlr2sDihcMLplog?_a=BAMAMicg0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}}],"isPartOf":{"@type":"WebPage","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/julykdjscrvylrpeu00zc","name":"Matt Watson"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Matt Watson","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/julykdjscrvylrpeu00zc"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"How to Become a Senior Software Engineer? 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