How to get to senior Swift developer roles?

Recorded May 22nd 2020 – watch the full episode on YouTube.

If someone is junior or intermediate and they're keen to advance, what advice do you have for them?

Paola Mata: First of all, I would say definitely ask your manager or whoever the person would be to speak to about what is in the existing career ladder. If there is one or if not, what would really get them there. What they're looking for.

And beyond that, I would say it's like, I mentioned before, maybe trying to tackle some bigger projects to keep challenging yourself. Because it's really the only way you're going to grow and learn new things even if it's scary at first. I still get scared. When I started at the Times actually I was given a project to update a library and all the related code that I had never used before this concept of promises.

“So finding out what the steps are, what the requirements are for promotion at your company. And definitely taking ownership of like, think of a visible, like a feature that a lot of people are going to use and if there's that kind of project available.”

So I had to learn it while updating it and I took it as like, I'm scared, but I know I can figure this out. And I think that's the attitude you need to have when you're trying to grow as an engineer, develop new skills. So finding out what the steps are, what the requirements are for promotion at your company.

And definitely taking ownership of like, think of a visible, like a feature that a lot of people are going to use and if there's that kind of project available. And then definitely work on something like that. And then keep tracking all these things that you're working on. So come review time, you can really point to everything you've contributed to.

Paul Hudson: I think your advice to keep challenging yourself is huge. And you say it's scary. Keep on leaving your comfort zone, step by step, by step. Try something new. Just try something out. I'm going to try coordinate a partner. I may use it for, that's my product tomorrow. Or I'm going to try MVVM or MVP or you name architecture thing you want to try out. Just try it out. See where it gets you see. See for yourself what the pros and cons are. Give yourself a challenge. Can I do this thing? And then see where it gets you.

And keeping track, you're absolutely right – it’s an amazing thing because we don't do it, do we? Because often we're in this scrum cycle, two-weekly sprints, and we're thinking about what's next? What's next? What's next? We're not pausing to reflect on where we've come from, where we've been and what we've learned and how that reflects on us in the future.

“So finding out what the steps are, what the requirements are for promotion at your company. And definitely taking ownership of like, think of a visible, like a feature that a lot of people are going to use and if there's that kind of project available.”

Paola Mata: Exactly. I forget about projects I worked on like a month ago. I have to go back and look at the code or look at the Jira tickets to refresh my memory. So finding out what the steps are, what the requirements are for promotion at your company. And definitely taking ownership of like, think of a visible, like a feature that a lot of people are going to use and if there's that kind of project available.

Also having written goals helps a lot. We try to establish them at the Times, I think it's every six months. So there's a whole outline, but we have different types of goals that we aim for. And on top of that, you can have your own personal goals that are not necessarily related to the company. But there might be something you want to learn. Maybe you want to learn this quarter or this half or this year. And making sure you stay on top of those as well.

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