How I’d Become a Senior (If I Had to Start Over)
How small habits turned me into an expert long before the title came
Hey friends, Happy Tuesday!
Before 15 years, I walked into a company as an ETL developer to build a data warehouse. Truth is, I was below junior level. I was still a student with almost no experience, and everything felt overwhelming.
Look at this guy in the photo. That’s me, staring at a stored procedure from a giant ETL pipeline with absolutely no idea what was happening. Behind the smile? Pure confusion. But instead of panicking, I thought: “Alright… just smile for the camera. If I fake it hard enough, maybe one day I’ll actually make it.” 😅
I was never chasing titles or thinking, “I need to become a senior developer.” All I cared about was doing my job well and feeling proud of the work I delivered.
But that attitude and the behaviors I built along the way naturally pushed me forward: from student → junior → senior → Product Owner & Project Lead of 15 developers!
Here’s the mindset that shaped my journey:
How I Reacted to Something Broken
I saw many junior developers in the same situation. When things go wrong, the first thing they do is defend themselves or point fingers. That looks weak, helps no one, and just wastes time. It’s not about ego.
My approach became simple: I’d say, “Ok, give me time to look at it, find the root cause, and then I’ll suggest how to fix it.” That calmness built trust.
A senior doesn’t panic or point fingers. They take ownership, investigate deeply, and focus on fixing and preventing the problem.
Get Mentored and Mentor Others
In the beginning, I didn’t even realize I had a mentor. I still remember one lady who was leading our project. I was just a student, but I kept watching how she worked. I learned how she communicated, how she reacted in tough situations, how she brainstormed ideas, even how she wrote professional emails. I picked up German business language just by listening to her. She wrote clean code, treated everyone with respect, even juniors when they made big mistakes.
I didn’t officially ask her to mentor me, and I didn’t take much of her time. I just absorbed, mirrored her style, and slowly added my own flavor on top. She was an inspiration and shaped how I carried myself.
Later, when a junior joined, I became the mentor. We paired once a week, and I thought I was helping them, but in reality, it helped me. Explaining things forced me to simplify, improve my naming, and write cleaner docs. And when they succeeded, it felt like my win too.
Seniors keep learning from mentors above them and keep growing others around them. That cycle is what makes you truly level up
The Moment Everything Changed: Ownership
At some point I asked, “Can I just take one source system and own it end to end?” And honestly, that was the best thing that ever happened to me.
Suddenly I wasn’t just a developer doing tasks from Jira. I was the owner of something real. It felt like this source is my little baby, and I had to take care of it every single day. I checked if the data loaded right, obsessed about quality, and kept coming up with ideas to make it better. Nobody had to ask me, I just did it.
And then the magic happened. With time, I knew that system better than anyone else in the company. People started coming to me for answers. For the first time in my life, I felt like, “Wow, I’m actually the expert here.” That’s when I realized what being senior really is. It’s not about years, it’s about ownership.
Seniority isn’t given by a title. It’s earned through ownership. The moment you fully own something, your mindset shifts and you naturally start acting like an expert.
How Code Reviews Changed Me
At the start, I never reviewed code. I felt too junior to say anything. Later, I began leaving small notes, catching little issues, and asking questions. That’s when I realized how much you can learn from reviews.
Two years later, I could review full features with confidence. It wasn’t just about finding mistakes anymore. Reviews became about sharing ideas and protecting the team. And that’s when people started trusting me more.
Seniors don’t just write more code. They help the whole team write better code.
Asking the “Why” Question
In the beginning, I just did tasks. Write this query, move that data, fix this bug. One day I asked, “But why are we building this?” and the whole conversation changed. Suddenly I understood the business side, the customer, and the reason my work mattered.
Juniors focus on how. Seniors always start with why.
Learning to Say “No”
For a long time, I said yes to everything. New features, extra bugs, last-minute requests. I thought that’s how you prove yourself. But all it gave me was burnout and unfinished work.
The big shift came when I learned to say, “This is important, but we need to cut scope or move the deadline.” Saying no respectfully didn’t make me weaker, it made me trusted.
Seniors are not the ones who do it all. They are the ones who protect focus.
Not Waiting for Jira
In the beginning, I only worked on the tickets I was assigned. Then I realized something. If I just sit and wait for Jira tasks, I’ll always stay junior.
So I became proactive. I looked for problems we were ignoring, thought about what could break tomorrow, and built small solutions before anyone asked. Sometimes it was preventing a failure that no one saw coming. Other times it was adding a feature customers didn’t even know they needed.
Seniors don’t wait for tasks. They create value before anyone asks.
If I Had to Start Again: My Top 5 Moves to Become Senior
Own something end to end – take full responsibility for a system or feature, know it better than anyone, and make it your mission to improve it daily.
Be proactive, not reactive – don’t wait for Jira tickets. Spot problems early, prevent failures, and deliver value before anyone asks.
Find a mentor and mentor others – learn from those ahead of you, and then pass that knowledge on. Growth doubles when you give and receive.
Always ask “why” – seniors don’t just deliver tasks, they connect every line of code to business impact.
Protect focus with “no” – saying yes to everything keeps you junior. Saying no to the wrong things earns respect.
These are the five behaviors that transformed me from a student into someone seen as senior long before the title appeared.
Thanks for reading ❤️
Baraa
New Video This Week
This week I released a new Python video all about unpacking.
We dive into how to use the asterisk * and the underscore _ when unpacking lists, tuples, and other sequences.
Unpacking is super important in the real world because it lets you split complex data into clear, usable pieces… whether it’s user info, product records, or API responses.
Also, here are 3 complete roadmap videos if you're figuring out where to start:
📌 Data Engineering Roadmap
📌 Data Science Roadmap
📌 Data Analyst Roadmap
Hey friends —
I’m Baraa. I’m an IT professional and YouTuber.
My mission is to share the knowledge I’ve gained over the years and to make working with data easier, fun, and accessible to everyone through courses that are free, simple, and easy!
great article. Always helpful and thoughtful
Always inspiring 🌟🌟