I Caught the Car
Key takeaways
- The second-most interesting point of discussion is around how I did it.
- Note: I'm not sure how my company's internal leveling scheme maps to well-known schemes at other companies, and I'm too lazy to look it up, so just know that the progression at my company goes:
- Associate Software Engineer (or ASE) --> Software Engineer (SE) --> Senior Software Engineer (SSE) --> Staff Software Engineer (Staff SE) --> etc
I started my first software job out of college in July of 2023. In January 2026, two and a half years later, I secured my second promotion, earning the title of Senior Software Engineer. This alone is not so remarkable as to deserve a blog post - I recently listened to a pretty good podcast featuring an IC who was Senior Staff at Uber by 25 - but I have thoughts on it that I'm choosing to share.
The most interesting point of discussion here is around the merits of having someone so early in their career be "senior" - certainly there are hard lessons that I have yet to learn in my career - but my company does not hand that title out like candy and by any reasonable non-tenure-related heuristic I have earned my role. The second-most interesting point of discussion is around how I did it. The third-most interesting point of discussion is how I feel about it. That's what I'm writing about today.
Note: I'm not sure how my company's internal leveling scheme maps to well-known schemes at other companies, and I'm too lazy to look it up, so just know that the progression at my company goes: