While I agree with some of this, I lean more toward the fact that it comes down to developers/engineers having seen some heavy 💩that takes them to the next level. Having written code for 5+ years in a safe place where nothing major went awry (or you never had to directly deal with the major issues) does not help you advance.

I wrote up my thoughts on what makes you a Senior-level dev/eng: https://medium.com/@tristandenyer/the-biggest-difference-between-senior-and-junior-employees-is-not-time-80118fed4272 Happy to hear your thoughts.