How Juniors Become Seniors (On Paper)

There’s a moment every developer dreads.

It doesn’t happen when you inherit a legacy codebase held together by TODO comments and faith, although we’ve all been there and it’s survivable.

As is that time when you discover the design was created in Figma as a vibe rather than a specification.

What is rather fatal is that time when you’re on a tight deadline. You have no room for error, and push back on scope. Then someone decides you need “extra help”, and they’re pulling in consultants to make things go a little more smoothly.

No.

The real fear arrives when someone tells you you’re getting “extra help” on a critical client project. If you’ve been there you know the next part. Two interns walk in. That’s where the disaster really starts, because you’re told by your boss that they’re the best in the business.

What is going on?

Meet the Experts

They’re polite, enthusiastic, fresh-faced, senior consultants. At least according to the invoice.

You shake hands. You smile. You do the professional thing and suppress the internal screaming because nothing can be done now the contracts are signed.

You already know what’s coming. You still own the delivery and the responsibility for making the deadline. That’s great, because now you’ve been given help and assistance.

The unwritten conversation goes something like this. “We’ve changed the scope, we’ve given you more developer hours. Now you need to make sure that you deliver”. It’s the scariest place to be in software development.

I had this situation in a small startup. We needed to get lots of work done in a short amount of time, we needed to deliver to make sure we would meet the arbitrary deadline of a marketing campaign. The consultants were keen, but they didn’t help to meet the deadline (far from it).

It wasn’t the consultant’s fault, they were keen and smart. They were not experts though, and should never have been sold as such.

It’s changed my understanding of how consultancy works. In consulting, perception is billable.

Smoke, Mirrors, and Margin

When a document says “full-stack developer with full relevant experience” and the price is right nobody challenges it. Nobody asks if that experience is from a production system or a university assignment group project (that the candidate didn’t really work on).

Much of software development is theatre, and this overselling of developers is one part of that. When consultant developers are taken onto a project as hired help the existing developers are still writing code, but they also need to shift into leadership roles. They need to manage expectations, and specifically will need to rewrite someone’s code at 11PM so the underlying data does not explode.

I think it’s that last point which hits home. Even when you’ve “brought in top-tier talent” on board there is more work that needs to be done. Velocity needs to be preserved and software development practices only seem to actually help you when you deliver.

Make sure you deliver. Please make sure you deliver.

Everyone Knows. Nobody Says Anything

The software development farce works because everyone participates.

Sales hits their target. Management avoids uncomfortable conversations. The client believes what they’re told because the alternative is admitting they don’t know how to evaluate technical competence.

And you? You keep fixing things quietly. You keep smiling on calls. You keep absorbing the cost whether it be technical, emotional, or temporal because someone has to make reality line up with the promise.

“It’s great to have such experienced hands on board” the client says.

Yes.

It really is.

Conclusion

When consultants are brought on board you’re expected to behave as normal. As if onboarding people who learned Git last week is a strategic win. As if velocity won’t collapse while everyone pretends it won’t.

You’ll need to thank your manager for “bringing in top-tier talent”.

You mute your microphone in follow-up meetings.

Perhaps it isn’t what you know.

It isn’t even who you know.

It’s what you can invoice.

Welcome to the real world.

About The Author

Professional Software Developer “The Secret Developer” can be found on Twitter @TheSDeveloper.

The Secret Developer has never been a consultant. Except that time they did very little.