Comments on: So You Wanna Be a Senior? Since we're doing the soundbite-sized descriptions: Junior: Gets a little done, with a lot of code Midlevel: Gets a lot done, with a lot of code Senior: Gets a lot done, with little code. But soundbites aside, the ability to indeed be concise and cut out unneeded fat is indeed a major characteristic of all good seniors I met in this industry. Since we’re doing the soundbite-sized descriptions:

Junior: Gets a little done, with a lot of code
Midlevel: Gets a lot done, with a lot of code
Senior: Gets a lot done, with little code.

But soundbites aside, the ability to indeed be concise and cut out unneeded fat is indeed a major characteristic of all good seniors I met in this industry.

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By: AN_D_K/2011/03/20/so-you-wanna-be-a-senior/#comment-1818 AN_D_K Sun, 20 Mar 2011 21:45:11 +0000 I know a lot of computer science students that have all of: experience with version control, experience planning and scheduling the technical development of game projects, experience making complete games for both multiple platforms (usually PC plus some iOS/Android) and multiple game engines, as well as experience using C++, C#, a shading language, and perhaps a few other languages on multiple projects. Yet they are definitely not senior programmers in the games industry, they are just game development students, less than a junior programmer. I think this list of qualifications would be better fit for "things you need to learn to get better at making games" than "things that make a senior programmer". To be fair, 4+ years of professional experience will lead to a deeper mastery of these skills than the 4 years they've practiced them making games in college, but this leads back to the answer that the thing that makes a senior programmer is just experience. I know a lot of computer science students that have all of: experience with version control, experience planning and scheduling the technical development of game projects, experience making complete games for both multiple platforms (usually PC plus some iOS/Android) and multiple game engines, as well as experience using C++, C#, a shading language, and perhaps a few other languages on multiple projects. Yet they are definitely not senior programmers in the games industry, they are just game development students, less than a junior programmer. I think this list of qualifications would be better fit for “things you need to learn to get better at making games” than “things that make a senior programmer”.

To be fair, 4+ years of professional experience will lead to a deeper mastery of these skills than the 4 years they’ve practiced them making games in college, but this leads back to the answer that the thing that makes a senior programmer is just experience.

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By: Chris Hargrove/2011/03/20/so-you-wanna-be-a-senior/#comment-1783 Chris Hargrove Sun, 20 Mar 2011 01:24:06 +0000