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I thought at first that this was going to be about someone else you had a bit of a homework rant at (guy with the chess problem). Now, I'd be seriously worried if the guy who posted that called himself a senior dev and was somewhat relieved to see that he doesn't but I'm intrigued as to what question inspired this post ...
I guess it would be unethical of you to tell us, though.
Or would it?
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PeejayAdams wrote: it would be unethical
I wouldn't say it would be unethical, just immaterial. Just seeing a rash of accounts that have been open for anywhere from 4 to 15 years and proclaim themselves to be senior developers at their company and yet can't perform the simplest of tasks, like assigning values to variables or debugging their code to fix an NRE or can't fix a simple missing reference error. One person I am thinking of has very proudly proclaimed that he won't do his own basic research and runs to the forums here all the time to get people to do his research for him. One help vampire got so many people to write his code for him, he was able to get some sort of position teaching others! And, people here still write code for him.
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NotPolitcallyCorrect wrote: One help vampire got so many people to write his code for him, he was able to get some sort of position teaching others!
That is truly terrifying.
Furthermore, it raises a question of how non-technical organisations go about recruiting IT staff when they have no-one to assess candidates from a position of knowledge. I've certainly come across a few technical illiterates who have wound up with far grander positions than senior developer on the basis of their ability to BS a boardroom. They tend to get their next job on the back of their inflated salary and job title and do rather better in life than those who actually know what they're doing.
To my mind, it's dishonest and dishonourable to live that way but to lie your way into a teaching position takes it a whole step further. How does the guy sleep at night?
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He has most likely persuaded himself that he is a brilliant teacher.
The levels of self-delusuion in software development is staggering...
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Yes, you're probably right about self-delusion and I may be being a bit cynical in thinking that these people are actually aware that they're clueless.
Thinking about the dozens of developers that I've worked with over the years, the cr@p ones have all had one thing in common - you can't tell them anything because they already know everything (even if they can't actually code their way out of a wet paper bag).
Conversely, all the good and great developers I've worked with have been completely open to ideas; don't get defensive when criticised and are more than happy to share their knowledge.
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"people here still write code for him." I think that's unethical. Teach, don't proxy.
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If one knows how to properly use google, then you can be classified as senior.
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But then 'Who' defines what is proper use of Google?
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KC@CahabaGBA wrote: But then 'Who' defines what is proper use of Google?
Chuck Norris
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I agree! And asking the right questions..
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If you forgot why you came into work today, then you are a senior developer.
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LOL! What say? errr...what were we talking about? Wait, what's this plastic thing under my hands? Keyboard? who?
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Piyush K Singh
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As part of an article that I'm writing, I'll give you a loose definition:
Someone who is senior able to apply scientific methods and has formal methodologies for their work process, demonstrates skill in the domain, tools, and languages, would be considered a master craftsman (ie, proven track record, ability to teach others, etc.) and also treats development as an art, meaning that it requires creativity, imagination, and the ability to think outside of the box of said skills.
Marc
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I like your loose definition . And thinking back to the OP's question...
1. It could be that the senior is assigning work because s/he is so fantastically amazing that s/he doesn't have time for these easy things that s/he is assigning.
or
2. Senior is assigning work because s/he is so NOT fantastically amazing that s/he has no clue about how to get the work done properly.
I'm assuming the OP was alluding to the fact that it was the second condition.
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When their cubicle looks like a kitchen pantry.
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Bloody hell YOU have a cubicle!
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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Yes, we have cubes. The Agile experiment didn't work out in our org culture; so the cubes were brought back. Actually, I have a small office, but the "senior developers" that I have worked with tend to have 6 months of food and drink in their cubicles just to let everyone know they aren't planning on retiring anytime soon.
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LOL!! I detest Agile and started refusing Agile dev shops, saying "I'm not a team player" (apparently this is worse than not knowing how to code ... )
And even though the company who contracts me gives us lunch, I still have loads of snacks lying around. I'm not a senior developer, though, I'm more of a senior moment developer
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So a senior developer has a posh cubicle and keys for the executive loo.
We're philosophical about power outages here. A.C. come, A.C. go.
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A senior developer is one who, when he needs to search the web, automatically starts to type altavista.com
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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I started with that search engine!
"One man's wage rise is another man's price increase." - Harold Wilson
"Fireproof doesn't mean the fire will never come. It means when the fire comes that you will be able to withstand it." - Michael Simmons
"You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him." - James D. Miles
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It's a fair bet that a lot of us did.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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And we watched Ninja Turtles.
Jeremy Falcon
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