Developer Career Growth: Lessons from Junior to Senior in Tech

One of the most common questions I hear from junior developers who are feeling like they are ready to move up to the next level is “How do I know if I’ve leveled up?”  Typically, it's junior developers wondering if they have proved themselves for the next level. I can remember wondering the same thing at various levels in my career. It’s not like someone hands you a new badge one day that says “Congrats, you’re now mid-level!” More often, you look back and realize: Oh wow, I'm not anxious about taking on more complex problems anymore — I must have grown.

I’ve been through the stages — junior developer, mid-level, senior, and eventually team lead. Along the way, I kept noticing differences between what I thought I knew, what I expected of myself, what others expected of me, and what I was actually able to produce. What I have found is that those four things rarely matched perfectly. Here’s how each stage really felt for me.

Junior Developer

You have learned enough syntax, frameworks, basic problem-solving, and people skills to actually get paid to code (which still feels like a trick at this stage). You’re fresh out of school, bootcamp, or self-study. For me, my math background gave me a boost in logic and structure, but no one’s degree really saves them from those first “I have no idea what I’m doing” moments when you're actually on the job.

• What you know: You know how to write working code. You can follow tutorials, piece together small programs, and probably complete all of the coding interview questions in your chosen language. You also know...how to use Google.

• What you expect of yourself: You think you should already be coding like the people you follow on GitHub. You want your code to look “professional,” even though you honestly have no idea what you don't know yet. You try to impress your team with what coding trends interest you at the time (even though they aren't the most efficient or maybe even relevant, but you don't really know this yet).

• What your employer expects: Mostly, that you don’t break production and follow the code submission guidelines. They know you’re green. They’re hiring for potential. If you can take tickets or issues, ask questions, and not disappear when you’re stuck, you’re doing fine.

• What your team expects: They want you to be curious and open. No one expects you to know the architecture, but they do expect you to speak up when you’re lost (instead of silently rewriting the same function for three hours).

• What you should produce: Polished small pieces of code. A well-written function. A bug fix that makes the app less annoying. You’re not designing the system, but the quality of what you do produce can be surprisingly solid — especially if you take the time to learn from your peers.

  
  

Everyday Example

You spend your entire day fixing a button that didn’t work. You show your team, and they cheer. You wonder if you just solved the biggest company problem because everyone’s so relieved. Nope — just a working button where you followed all of the guidelines of submitting a great merge request for review. You did it, you did it well, and that counts.

Mid-Level Developer

You have spent 2 to 3 years in the trenches. You have delivered high-quality features, aided in fixing production bugs, and no longer get anxious every time you see a merge conflict. You start to see issues that you know you can take on. You’ve learned how to take a problem from start to finish without constant supervision.

• What you know: You know your stack pretty well. You understand debugging, testing, and a bit of optimization. You also know where your gaps are (and you still feel them sometimes).

• What you expect of yourself: You expect not to need help anymore. (This was the biggest head scratch for me.) The truth is that you do still need help, just in different ways. You’re probably harder on yourself than anyone else is. You want to start seeing the “big picture,” but sometimes it's not always apparent.

• What your employer expects: That you can handle bigger tickets and less hand-holding. They expect you to deliver features, not just fixes, and to start thinking about edge cases before they become bugs. They also expect to hear more of your ideas in tag-ups and meetings and to be able to answer questions from junior devs.

• What your team expects: Reliability. If they hand you something, they expect it’ll get done. They expect you to know what questions to ask so that you don't get held up for a day on something that you could have resolved in a few hours with the proper collaboration. They also expect you to help newer devs with their questions when you feel knowledgeable enough to mentor.

• What you actually produce: Well-organized code that meets the standards of your teams standards and solves meaningful problems. Sometimes it’s elegant, sometimes it’s a quick fix, but it works and keeps the team moving forward with no negligent cleanup. You won't be invited to every strategic meeting, but you are still the bridge between juniors and seniors.

  
  

Everyday Example

You fix a bug in an afternoon that would’ve taken you a week a year ago. You celebrate for a moment before moving on to your next task while also pondering the edge cases and unit tests that could've prevented the bug from being pushed to production in the first place. You may also start your love for documentation at this stage (if you're a documentation nerd like me). It's a weird mix of confidence and questioning.

Senior Developer

You have been doing this long enough to see patterns in the code, people, projects, and deadlines. You’ve broken things, fixed them, and learned to ask internal questions like “What happens downstream if I change this?” You also have a good grasp on what some of the junior and mid-level developers may struggle with based on the issues they have decided to take on, and you're ready to address their questions or concerns when asked.

• What you know: A lot. But more importantly, you know what you don’t know. You realize tech is too big for anyone to master, so you get comfortable being a lifelong learner. You're confident in your ability to figure things out and be creative when solving problems.

• What you expect of yourself: To be a problem-solver at a higher level. You expect yourself to not just code, but to guide and lead when appropriate. Sometimes you put pressure on yourself to be the most helpful in your particular area or system, but you also have enough of an understanding and trust in your counterparts to guide conversations about their strengths. You expect to be able to dive into an issue and choose the best option for tackling it.

• What your employer expects: Ownership. They expect you to handle complex problems, improve systems, and help steer projects. They expect you to help mentor and grow the team. They also expect you to recognize issues before they arise and have intelligent conversations about designing new features and systems.

• What your team expects: That you’ll review their PRs thoughtfully. This means knowing your team, knowing the system, asking good questions, and being approachable when someone is stuck. They expect leadership by example, not just knowledge. They expect innovation and high quality products.

• What you actually produce: Not just code, but clarity. Designs, guidance, documentation, and decisions that prevent headaches further down the road. Your commits may not be as frequent, but their impact runs deeper. You may work on "big-picture" features and projects instead of assigning yourself to the smaller issues or tasks anymore. You may also be in more meetings because now your expertise is necessary for planning.

  
  

Everyday Example

You write a brilliantly detailed issue for a junior or mid-level developer to pick up. Once they submit their merge request, you review it and find that they did a great job. You get the satisfaction of knowing that you defined the problem and unit tests well enough that they were able to easily tackle their issue and submit a successful MR. You're seen as knowledgeable and a mentor, and that feels good.

Team Lead

Sometimes by choice, sometimes by accident. You were good at your job, so now you’re responsible for helping other people do theirs. I fell into this role by happenstance as the most senior person on a small team who had shown accountability, high knowledge, and responsibility for the products I produced. In my experience, once you do well as a team lead, you will always be considered as someone who can lead any project that they are on.

• What you know: You know the codebase, and you also know the people. You understand the system and how the parts fit together. You know that deadlines can be real or arbitrary, that communication matters more than perfect syntax, and that protecting your team from chaos is part of the job. You know how to solve problems at a higher level, and you know what to expect from your team (good or bad).

• What you expect of yourself: To keep everything running smoothly. You expect yourself to both manage and code, even though you may not get to code as much as you previously liked. You expect to be able to answer questions from members on your team about the codebase, and you expect to be able to answer questions from management about progress. You expect to have more control of how the given project unfolds by deciding what actually needs to be done and who is the best candidate to do it. Even though all of the requirements may not come from you, you are still a huge part of setting the requirements and reviewing what is required of your team.

• What your employer expects: Delivery at the project level. They want happy clients, working software, and a team that isn’t on fire. They expect organization and transparent communication. They expect you to do what you say you will do, and when there is a hiccup let them know what's going on and how it is being mediated. You will be expected to report in meetings, and you will also be asked to contribute to project/product planning, cross-team discussions, and maybe even budgetary and HR discussions.

• What your team expects: Clarity, direction, and support. They want you to advocate for them, clear roadblocks, and not forget what it feels like to be in the weeds. They expect you to do what you say you will do as a liaison between them and upper management. They also expect you to be knowledgeable about the system. When something goes wrong that no one else can fix, or if there is a quick fix that needs to happen to stop production from breaking, then you may be the one to fix it.

• What you actually produce: Slightly less code, more conversations. More decisions. The impact you have isn’t in your own lines of code anymore — it’s in how the team moves forward. Your individual coding contributions matter, but you're managing the success of the team now. So, you're a mentor in this role as well. You produce the pipeline that delivers the product as efficiently and close to the initial requirements as possible.

  
  

Everyday Example

You spend two hours in meetings and write 10 lines of code. It feels like nothing, but those two hours saved your team three weeks of confusion. The most fulfilling moments in this role for me are the ones that have a positive impact on the team. I get excited about the collective team pride and camaraderie after pushing features to a successful production.

Developer Career Growth: My Biggest Advice

Your developer career growth doesn't happen in a single moment. It’s the accumulation of little wins, new responsibilities, and realizing that your focus has shifted. At first, it’s about proving you can code in this new environment to yourself and your team. Later, it’s about proving you can help others succeed at coding. If you’re wondering whether you’ve “made it” to the next step, ask yourself: Am I focused on bigger problems than I was last year? Am I helping others more than I used to? If the answer is yes, you’re growing — even if it doesn’t always feel like it.

Now, I feel like I also have to say this: if you’ve noticed that you’re growing, don’t ignore it. This is the moment to advocate for yourself. Talk to your manager about what it takes to officially move up, and ask for clear expectations. However, if those opportunities don’t exist where you are, it may be time to look somewhere else for a role that matches the level you’ve worked so hard to reach. One of the reasons that I wanted to write this article is that you may not always be affirmed where you are. Growth is valuable, and so are you. So, don’t wait for someone else to notice before you claim that next step.