10 Years Of Experience vs 10 Years Of The SAME Experience - Dev Leader Weekly 84
TL; DR:
10 Years Of Experience vs 10 Years Of The SAME Experience
What's The Obsession With "Years Of Experience"?
If you're job searching right now in tech, you've probably noticed this whole thing where employers are asking for "X years of experience". It might seem frustrating when you're reading the description and thinking "Hey, I can TOTALLY do that!" only to realize that you don't meet the minimum years of experience (YoE).
Asking for YoE isn't anything new. Even when I was first interning and then exploring full time roles between 10 and 15 years ago, this was normal. But there are two things I want to address:
I spent some time discussing this the other day on Code Commute, and I had some thoughts:
Some people didn't like these ideas. But to be clear: I am not saying these are GOOD reasons for these things to happen. I'm simply saying this is why I think these things happen.
But let's dig in a bit deeper. Is YoE even helpful? Personally, I think it could be a general indicator for potential experience. However, I certainly don't think it applies as a universal truth.
Which leads us to another question that was asked on Code Commute:
Stuck In One Spot
10 years is a long time to invest in anything. It's a decent chunk of time. When we think about our careers, there is a lot of progress we could make and a lot of different opportunities for unique experiences along the way of a 10 year journey.
However, let's consider what happens if we get stuck in one spot. And to clarify what I mean, let's assume you're working in a particular domain with a particular tech stack and... you're doing nearly the same type of work for 10 years. What would we expect to happen?
Two things come to mind for me:
In the first case, I think this is the danger zone. I think we want to avoid getting overly complacent so that we're appropriately challenged and getting the opportunity to learn new things. I don't mean to suggest you can't find some level of comfort or joy in your work, or that you must be constantly pushing your limits. However, zero push likely means you won't be advancing very far.
In the second case, this is a much better spot to be in. If you happen to find a domain that you love and want to keep investing into that, it can be a great opportunity for you to build that expertise. You may even find that it's a highly sought-after set of skills you build.
But can we do better than extreme focus in a narrow scope? Perhaps -- but that will depend on how we define "better"... So let's continue.
Get Uncomfortable: From I to T
Have you heard of a T-Shaped developer? The concept is about describing the skill set of a developer where the vertical part of the T indicates depth of skill in an area and the horizontal part indicates the breadth of skill across areas.
Generally, being a T-Shaped developer is encouraged because it suggests that you have exposure to a variety of things, but you've also taken the opportunity to "specialize" or build up more experience in a particular area where you'll really shine. And why stop at T-Shaped? We might not have other letters that are as helpful, but perhaps having several verticals where you can go deep on would be helpful.
With that analogy set, we can reflect on the previous section and think of building the expertise in ONE very specific area over 10 years as an "I" shape. Just the vertical part of the T.
... So how do we get the horizontal part?
From my experience: this generally means getting a bit uncomfortable.
What I mean is that by going deeper in a particular area, refining our skills, and building more expertise in that narrow scope, we're most likely going to have a higher degree of comfort doing this. That's because the area remains familiar and we're building on the very relevant and specific experiences that we've already been building up.
But you know what's really uncomfortable for many of us?
Being a newbie all over again.
That means when you start trying to go a bit wider and get a breadth of new experiences, it's generally a bit uncomfortable to feel like you're starting from scratch. Hell, I've talked about this many times on livestreams where I've said it can be scary to get out of your comfort zone.
In my opinion, it can REALLY work to your benefit to make sure you're getting exposure to different types of things in your career:
Wrapping It Up
This post isn't intended to make you panic if you don't feel like you're exploring a variety of things -- it's just to raise awareness. I think this is something to be mindful of when you're considering your career plan and where you want to be headed.
Ideally, at some point before you acquire your first 10 years of experience you can take some steps to ensure it's not the same experience for 10 years on repeat.
As always, thanks so much for your support! I hope you enjoyed this issue, and I'll see you next week.
Nick “Dev Leader” Cosentino
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Software Engineering Leadership & Management | Unrepentant nerd and wrangler of nerds.
1 周I have definitely been that "stuck" developer. The first half of my tenure was great: I was learning, trying new stuff, growing. The second half? Not so much. I had a realization that if I stayed, I was very likely to keep doing what I was currently doing for the rest of my career – so after talking with my family, I went out on a limb and found an environment that forced me to learn entirely new things roughly every 6 months.
AI-Driven Hiring & Tech Leadership | Director of Software Engineering at XE
1 周Nick Cosentino, great article. Completely agree. Years of experience is just a proxy. I've interviewed applicants with only a few years of experience who outperform developers with a decade in the field. As you pointed out, the key is maintaining enthusiasm for learning, staying curious, and continuously deepening one's expertise.