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A senior engineer has sufficient knowledge to successfully avoid companies that do not know how to evaluate senior engineers.

Personally, it took me 20 years to reach this understanding. I wouldn't be surprised if other senior engineers, smarter than I, reached it in much less time.

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Indeed, part of becoming a senior-level-anything is recognizing what problems exist and having the skills (experience, knowledge, etc.) to work on solving them.

I can't put my hands on the source at the moment, but there's a cliché that I've read somewhere that goes like this:

"Juniors focus on the how. Seniors focus on the what. Principals focus on the why."

If you're a junior or senior who asks why, you're screwed. That's my experience.

To me, becoming better at my career should mean that my job options have expanded greatly. Being shut out of some opportunities because they have different metrics does not sound like a win.

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