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The Difference Between Junior Developers and Senior Developers
At a distance they look the similar, close up they couldn’t be more different
At a distance, senior and junior developers look similar. Close up, they couldn’t be more different.
I will simplify this article to split developers into junior developers and senior developers because they are the two extremes of the spectrum. There are levels in between as developers progress from junior to senior but to keep it simple we will focus the difference between junior and senior developers.
Junior developers are not bad developers, they are inexperienced and they are on the path to becoming good (senior) developers. Software development is a skill and to get better at a skill you need to practice it, which for developers means they need to create software.
Junior developers are developers learning their craft and you do this by creating software and trading mistakes for experience.
Junior developers are on the path to becoming senior developers, but they need senior developers to lead and coach them to become senior developers.
You cannot get better solely by reading, watching videos or attending training courses because you need to show you can implement the new knowledge and use it to create software.
Not all developers are equal
Not all developers are equal, senior developers make a bigger contribution to the success/failure of software projects because they lead the development and developers.
It’s common for non-technical people to assume all developers are equal and developers are commodities and can be seen as technical resources. This is a big mistake because the quality of developers and senior developers varies a lot.
Successful projects always have good senior developers, and failing projects usually have poor senior developers. This isn’t always the case because poor leadership can nullify the effect of good senior developers with poor planning and decision making. Good leadership cannot compensate for poor senior developers.
