When I First Felt Senior

One of the first times I felt like a senior engineer had nothing to do with technical skills.

I was in a product architecture meeting led by a talented but stubborn lead. He'd designed something complicated and outdated when we had a real opportunity to build something modern that could last. Even if he had good reasons, he wasn't communicating them in a way that made people feel heard.

He was handing down mandates, not having a conversation.

I could feel the unease in the room. People had opinions but nobody was speaking up.

So I did. I questioned his assumptions and asked him to walk us through his reasoning. I raised the team's concerns as if they were my own and advocated for a more collaborative approach.

His tone changed and the dynamic shifted from taking orders to having a conversation about something important. Other devs joined in with their own expertise and the architecture got stronger because of it.

That moment taught me something. Senior engineering is about creating space for others to contribute and having the courage to speak up when something isn't working.

Nobody told me to do that. I saw what the room needed and acted.

But it took me years to trust that instinct. I second-guessed myself constantly. Looking back, I wonder how much sooner I would have found my voice if someone had been in my corner, helping me see I was ready before I believed it myself.

That's what good mentorship does. It closes the gap between where you are and where you already have the ability to be.

#MentorMonday #LearnWithOJ #SoftwareEngineering #DevOps #SRE