lol ok so I wasn’t deeply offended by the dingo reference for what it’s worth, but this attempt to distance yourself from it is weird. Both this post and Seinfeld are referencing the event directly.

And that’s fine with me, to be clear! I’m not clutching my pearls, I tend to have fairly edgy humor, not trying to put you on blast or die on this hill either, etc - I mostly just find it odd. Most companies, on their corporate blog, wouldn’t feel comfortable joking about most tragedies - would you make a similar quip about 9/11? Charlie Kirk? Casey Anthony? I’m guessing not. But the dingo thing is fair game. People say it without even considering it. What’s different? Genuinely asking

It is so strange that people still say this. A family lost their child.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48470149

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

“I don’t really know much about that, go ask _____” is the desired response in that situation

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48101373

Points: 12

# Comments: 32

I left out a detail that might be relevant? Maybe not? I couldn't decide. SWE is actually a second career for me. I flunked out of college when I was 19, spent most of my 20s working as a chef, and then graduated college and started this job at 29. So I'm 31 now. So it's been funny to read things like "Congrats to this kid" haha.

If the post was about _how_ I got promoted that fast, I'm pretty sure this ^ would be the #1 reason. I'd already been programming for like 10 years when I started this job. People paid me (almost nothing) to write software that they still use today (much to my chagrin - it wasn't very good). So I felt like I had a "head start" compared to most of my intern cohort (though, to be clear, I still to this day feel very behind, in general).

Writing and sharing it is vulnerable, and it's always drove me crazy to see people treat those who choose to do that uncharitably. I try to check them when I can (on other people's posts). I should trust others in this context to do the same.

I should probably develop a thicker skin if I'm going to blog on the internet in 2026.

As an engineer, I just want to get an idea of where this person is at in their learning journey and what their personality is like, do they have certain intangibles, etc.

The recruiter who screens the person before they ever talk to me, on the other hand...

Something that complicates the problem is that not all juniors are the same.

Some juniors really just need to be shown the ropes and learn a few things and they can start contributing at mid-level. And then after a little bit of doing that they can start having Senior-level impact.

Some juniors take a little longer and need a little more help and that's totally fine, and they don't deserve to be ripped apart by smug seniors who forget they used to not know anything either.

And some juniors just don't really have the sauce and never really gravitate above mid-level, regardless of where their title ends up. Feel for these folks but they at times can be frustrating to work with.

But yes, to reiterate, in any case, the junior snark is hella annoying.

Perhaps it's a bad signal if an engineer cares _only_ about their title though.

But yes, I feel a small tinge in my brain whenever I'm introduced as a "senior engineer". I'll know I've truly made it when that finally goes away.

I touched on it a little bit in my post but yeah I can not overstate the role of luck, both "internal luck" (do I have a good manager) and "external luck" (did I choose the right offer out of college).

I mean sure, pat myself on the back for doing well in my intern interview, doing well in the internship and getting the return offer, doing well when I returned after school, etc... but I was damn lucky that recruiter plucked my resume out of the stack and put it on the "send a coding screen" pile when I was still in school. So yeah, the way I view it is that you have to be ready to take advantage when the luck breaks your way.