Level-up Engineering From Junior to Senior Developer and Beyond: Farhan Thawar (VP of Engineering, Shopify)
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Sep 16, 2020 
In this engaging discussion, Farhan Thawar, the VP of Engineering at Shopify, explores the journey from junior to senior developer. He highlights key differences between the two roles, emphasizing curiosity as a trait of seniors. Farhan advocates for pair programming as an effective learning method and discusses the importance of stretch projects to help engineers discover their true paths. He also shares insights on personal career ownership, the significance of soft skills, and Shopify's mission to ease entrepreneurial challenges.
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Problem-First Engineering
- Senior engineers think at a higher level and reframe product solutions to deliver value faster.
- They ask more questions and prioritise solving the customer's problem over elegant but slow solutions.
Unknown First-Timer Became A Star
- Farhan hired a developer whose first software job nobody on the team knew about.
- That person became an outstanding engineer and moved into data science at Shopify.
Level Up With Pair Programming
- Use pair programming as a primary tool to accelerate learning and cross-domain skill transfer.
- Pair frequently because intense, immediate feedback makes improvement almost inevitable.