"Senior": the title you earn by surviving, not by standing out

Wed, 03 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A friend who works at a consultancy has spent five years wondering when they’ll finally make him “senior.” His desk neighbor has been one for two years, even though he’s shown up late four times this week, keeps making the same mistakes as always, and whose most memorable technical contribution was changing the IDE color theme. The difference between them: the colleague hasn’t left. Yet.

Open any job listing in the tech industry and you’ll find they’re looking for senior developers. Thousands of them. Always. It’s the most in-demand profile, the most sought-after, the one that shows up most often in LinkedIn headlines alongside buzzwords like “go-to resource,” “technical leadership,” and “systemic thinking.”

Tech Company on I am Lino

"Senior": the title you earn by surviving, not by standing out