He Was a Senior Developer, Until We Read His Pull Request
Years of experience don’t always mean expertise. Here’s what one PR revealed about the hidden dangers of blind promotion and title…
We thought he was the most experienced on the team — until his code told a different story.
He Was a Senior Developer, Until We Read His Pull Request
Years of experience don’t always mean expertise. Here’s what one PR revealed about the hidden dangers of blind promotion and title inflation in tech.
We had just onboarded a new “Senior Developer” — a hire who came highly recommended, impressive on paper, with over eight years of experience at some big-name companies. The kind of profile that makes you nod with quiet relief: Finally, someone who can take ownership without hand-holding.
Until his first pull request landed.
And we all stared at it like a bad plot twist in a movie we didn’t see coming.
When Experience Doesn’t Equal Expertise
The PR wasn’t just bad — it was dangerously bad.
Code duplication everywhere. Variables named temp1, check, and abc. Zero tests. Inline SQL queries scattered like confetti. Business logic buried inside controller methods. And perhaps most shocking of all: a 700-line function with no comments and no clear purpose.
It felt less like senior-level work, and more like a late-night rush job by a first-year intern.
We didn’t expect perfection. We expected structure. Design thinking. Thoughtful abstractions. At least a basic test.
Instead, we got spaghetti.
The Problem With “Senior” Titles in Tech
This wasn’t just about one PR. It was a wake-up call — a reminder that titles in tech are broken. Here’s why:
1. Years ≠ Skills
Experience is not a reliable proxy for expertise. You can write the same flawed code for eight years and still be called “senior.”
2. Title Inflation Is Real
Companies throw around titles like “Senior,” “Lead,” and even “Principal” just to retain talent or match competitors — without any real benchmarking.
3. Lack of Peer Reviews in Previous Roles
In some environments, even bad code gets merged without a second glance. A dev might have spent years writing unreviewed, untested code — and no one ever challenged it.
What Makes a True Senior Developer?
Not years. Not job titles. Not even the companies on your resume.
Here’s what actually sets senior engineers apart:
1. Code Craftsmanship
Writes clean, maintainable, and modular code
Follows established design patterns and conventions
Prioritizes readability over cleverness
2. Testing Mindset
Writes meaningful unit and integration tests
Thinks about edge cases before someone else has to
Understands the value of CI/CD and test coverage
3. Architectural Thinking
Designs with scalability and separation of concerns in mind
Knows when to abstract and when to keep it simple
Communicates design choices with clarity
4. Mentorship & Communication
Reviews others’ code with empathy and clarity
Shares knowledge instead of hoarding it
Leads by example, not by volume
How to Spot a Title-Inflated Developer Before It’s Too Late
During Interviews:
Ask how they solved a problem, not just what they did
Dive deep into architectural decisions: Why that pattern? Why that trade-off?
Have them walk you through a past PR or a code snippet they wrote
Introduce a scenario that requires code review feedback — see how they think
During Onboarding:
Start with a small, contained task
Review their PRs together before merging
Observe their reasoning during pair programming
Track their feedback on others’ code
What We Did After That PR
We didn’t fire him. Not immediately.
Instead, we did something harder.
We had an honest conversation.
We shared detailed feedback on the PR — not just what was wrong, but why it mattered. We asked about the decisions he made and what constraints he had assumed. We offered mentorship.
To his credit, he took it well. And over time, he improved. But the gap between the title he held and the work he initially produced was still jarring.
The Bigger Lesson for Teams and Managers
Don’t trust titles. Trust code.
Treat every new hire as a clean slate. Let their first few weeks reveal their true level.
Create a culture of healthy code reviews.
Not just nitpicks — meaningful reviews that educate and elevate.
Promote based on contribution, not just tenure.
A “senior” developer should be someone other developers learn from — not just someone who’s been around the longest.
Final Thoughts: Respect the Craft
This isn’t about shaming developers who are still growing.
It’s about protecting the craft of software development — a craft that requires constant learning, humility, and intentionality.
Because in the end, the best developers aren’t the ones with the loudest titles.
They’re the ones whose code speaks quietly — and brilliantly — for itself.
