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I'll share my coaching criteria as a manager:

an acceptable Junior Software Engineer... uses tools to make properly formatted code

produces readable code, mostly self-documenting

becomes a 'goto person' on code after spending 2 total weeks in it.

rarely goes 3 days without obvious progress or output to the sprint team

is comfortable making estimates about new work

is comfortable re-using existing patterns for new work, even in unfamiliar code

can explain the 'why' of processes and rules, and be able to see situations where they may not apply

understands agile development and participates effectively

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a Senior Software Engineer... is also a Software Engineer with everything that comes with it

is a team representative of code, projects, and end-users

has a running list of 5 things the team or the team's code is weak in, and could be doing better

considers edge cases well, writes bulletproof code

understands integration points with other teams and projects

reliably resolves tickets in team's estimated timeframe.

does code reviews and design reviews that are kind and instructive

is able to refactor code to improve maintainability without being too aggressive and causing additional problems

is able to help any other dev with problems in any of the team's code

is capable of teaching a new employee about all of the team's code, projects, and end-users

brings innovative ideas back to the team from reading, experimentation, and conversations in addition to normal work

is a student of agile development and can effectively coach and mentor others in agile development

maintains good relationships among cross-functional team members

can boldly estimate very low or very high for new work, keen prediction for the very easy and very hard

can sense CPU, memory, and computation time problems in code invents new patterns and solutions rather than always using existing patterns

sees the give and take in processes and rules, uses them as a tool for guidance not to be followed rigidly 100% if not best for the company

understands feelings and history about codebases and projects, not just the immediately apparent facts

is not just extremely knowledgeable, but also with passion and proper application and improvisation of concepts



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