{"id":4382989,"date":"2021-04-07T11:23:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-07T09:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deptagency.com\/insight\/junior-vs-mid-vs-senior-software-engineers-experience-skills-expectations\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T13:42:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T11:42:53","slug":"junior-vs-mid-vs-senior-software-engineers-experience-skills-expectations","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.deptagency.com\/en-in\/insight\/junior-vs-mid-vs-senior-software-engineers-experience-skills-expectations\/","title":{"rendered":"Junior vs. Mid vs. Senior software engineers \u2013 experience, skills, & expectations"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\n\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tBack to all articles\t\t<\/span>\n\t\n<\/button>\n\t\tJunior vs. Mid vs. Senior software engineers \u2013 experience, skills, & expectations\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/picture>\n\t\n\t<\/div>
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\n\t\tKelsey Anderson\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t7 April 2021\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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\n\t\t\tWhen thinking about hiring additional engineering resources, you might ask yourself, \u201cDo I need a junior, mid-level, or senior software engineer?\u201d\t<\/h2>

However, what you\u00a0should<\/em>\u00a0also<\/em>\u00a0be asking is, \u201cDo I need an individual contributor, solutions architect, or manager?\u2019

Together, these two questions will help you create a job description, interview qualified candidates, and hire the right individual for your technology goals.

Below, we\u2019ll compare both seniority and impact, giving you a better understanding of the differences between juniors, mids, seniors, contributors, architects, and managers. Phew, that\u2019s a lot of titles, so let\u2019s dig in.<\/p>\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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\n\t\t\n\t\tJr vs. Mid vs. Sr software engineer\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\tGenerally speaking, here are the differences between junior, mid and senior engineers.

Junior developers<\/strong>\u00a0usually have 1-3 years of development experience. They should be proficient in one or two languages\/frameworks and have dabbled in a few other languages.

A mid-level engineer<\/strong>\u00a0should have 3-5 years of experience or a bachelor\u2019s in computer science with a year or two of experience. At this point, they should have mastered 2-3 languages\/frameworks. At DEPT\u00ae, we expect our mid-level engineers to have full stack experience (backend, frontend, and databases).

A senior engineer<\/strong>\u00a0should have 5+ years of experience and be proficient in any modern language (or be able to quickly jump into anything new.) They should also have great communication, technical project management, and architecting skills.

Beyond these standard experiences, it\u2019s also important to define skills and expectations within your organization.

At DEPT\u00ae, we use these:

<\/meta>Time scope of accountability:<\/strong>\u00a0On average, how long are they working on a task? For juniors, this might be a few days; for seniors, many months.

The complexity of scope<\/strong>: How difficult is their work and what does it require?

Communication:<\/strong>\u00a0What are the expectations surrounding communication?

Expertise<\/strong>: Generally speaking, how much do they know?

Leadership<\/strong>: Who are they in charge of? For both juniors and mids, it\u2019s probably just themselves.

Oversight<\/strong>: What kind of oversight do they need? This can range from daily check-ins to as needed.\t<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t