#Career#Soft Skills#Leadership#Mentoring
The Moment I Realized I Was a 'Fake Senior'
I thought being a Senior dev meant writing perfect code. I was wrong. It's about decision making and unblocking others.
September 1, 2025
Codemapo
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After a few years of coding, I considered myself a "Senior Developer." I knew fancy design patterns, used keyboard shortcuts like a wizard, and implemented features faster than anyone.
But my mentor's feedback was shocking. "You code well, but you aren't increasing the team's velocity."
I was angry. "I'm doing all the work, what do you mean?" Looking back, I was a "Solo Player," not a "Team Leader."
Here is what I learned about true seniority.
Juniors ask: "How do I implement this with Redux?" Seniors ask: "Do we really need Redux here? Isn't Context API enough?" or "Is building this feature right for the business now?"
The ability to choose tech stacks based on Business Impact and Maintainability rather than tech hype is the core competency.
When requirements are vague, Juniors stop and say, "The specs are bad, I can't code." Seniors go to PMs and Designers to fill the gaps, explain technical constraints, and propose alternatives. You need the ability to translate vague requirements into clear technical specs.
It's more valuable to make 5 teammates 2x more efficient than to write 10x the code yourself.
This was the "Team Velocity" I was missing.
I thought saying "I can do everything" was skill. So I accepted impossible deadlines and burned out working overtime.
A real Senior knows how to say "No."
Not just refusing, but calculating the interest on Technical Debt and warning the business. That is professionalism.
When I first mentored, I was a "Human StackOverflow." I gave code answers immediately. Juniors became dependent on me, and work stopped when I went on vacation.
Good mentoring is teaching How to Ask.
Helping them find their own answers is true support.
Tech debates often turn toxic. "React is better than Vue," "Tabs vs Spaces." A Junior developer tries to win the argument with facts. A Senior developer tries to understand the other person's context.
"Why does Sarah want to use NoSQL here? Is she worried about schema changes?" Instead of saying "NoSQL is bad," a Senior asks: "What are the specific flexibility requirements we have?"
By validating the other person's concerns ("I see why you're worried about X"), you turn an opponent into a collaborator. Soft skills are hard skills.
There is no "Best Practice." There are only Trade-offs.
A Junior seeks the "Right Answer." A Senior asks: "What are we sacrificing to get this benefit?"
If you can explain why you chose a "boring" technology over a "hype" one, and list the downsides you are accepting, you are thinking like an architect.
Your CTO or CEO doesn't care about "Refactoring Redux." They care about "feature delivery speed" and "customer retention."
Bad Communication: "We need to refactor the legacy codebase because it's spaghetti."
Senior Communication: "The current code slows down new feature development by 50%. If we invest 2 weeks in refactoring now, we can ship the Q4 roadmap 1 month earlier."
Translate code problems into Business Value. That gets you the resources you need.
Juniors estimate based on "Best Case Scenario." "I can build this login page in 4 hours." (Assuming no bugs, no meetings, no spec changes).
Seniors estimate based on "Reality." "This login page involves OAuth, Mobile compatibility, and Error handling. It will take 3 days."
Under-promising and Over-delivering is better than missing deadlines. Includes buffer time for:
A Senior's estimate is a commitment, not a guess.
There are 10-year devs with Junior mindsets, and 3-year devs who work like Seniors.
Not about the code you wrote today, but: Did your teammates work more comfortably because of you? Did the company avoid major risks because of your decisions?
If you can answer these, you are already a great Senior.
Coding books are great, but mindset books are better at this stage.
Read one chapter a week. Reflect on it. Apply it to your current project. Growth happens in the reflection, not just the reading.
Even as a Senior, I still feel like a fraud sometimes. "Do I truly deserve this title? I still Google how to center a div."
The truth is, everyone Googles. The difference is that a Senior knows what to Google and how to judge the answer.
Don't be afraid to say "I don't know." A Junior pretends to know to avoid looking bad. A Senior says "I don't know, but I'll find out," and then actually solves it. Your value isn't in knowing everything, but in your ability to figure things out.
Finally, a Senior knows their limits. Pulling all-nighters isn't passion; it's poor planning. To lead the team for the next 5 years, you must take care of your health (physical and mental). A burned-out Senior is a liability to the team. Rest is part of the job.