The question I get most in mentorship is some variation of: “what should I study to become senior?”. The answer is almost never a technology.
The radius of impact
Mid-level solves the task. Senior solves the problem — and the problem is almost always bigger than the task that landed on you.
In practice, what changes:
- You start asking why before estimating how much.
- You realise the most elegant solution nobody else can maintain is a bad solution.
- You start caring about what happens after the merge.
The conversations you’ve been avoiding
Most of the level-up isn’t in the code. It’s in saying “this won’t make the deadline” in the meeting, not in a DM afterwards. In disagreeing with the whole team, with data. In asking for feedback when it’s going to sting.
The technical part gets you in. The hard part keeps you there.
How you know you got there
It isn’t the title. It’s when people start coming to you before they decide, not after something breaks.