The cost of high seniority
One question I guess every now and then as a senior staff software engineer is “how many hours a week do I work?”. Behind the question, there’s the implicit assumption that the main cost of being a staff+ software engineer means you have to work long hours.
My personal experience is a bit different – the true cost of being a very senior engineer is responsibilities (and stress). The more senior you are, the larger your responsibilities, so the more stress will lie on your shoulders – you are responsible for more revenue, avoiding larger fines, or having more components on critical journeys.
It never goes away with time as far as I can tell. You will likely learn to better manage your responsibilities, but you will still have them – and you likely want them. If you can offload all your responsibilities as a senior staff, it means either:
- You aren’t operating at that level
- Your company is full of check and balances (and paperwork) making it a not very interesting place to work You have to find the balance between stress and thrill – it’s a delicate one, but fun (and important) to maintain.
This is also why maintaining a good work life balance at that level is even harder – and why not everyone truly want to reach that level.