From Junior Coder to Backend Tech Lead: My 14‑Year Career Journey

Since graduating in 2009, the author has spent 14 years in software development, currently serving as the head of a 15‑person backend team responsible for the stability of an entire IT department.

The article aims to share how the author advanced to technical management, offering practical advice for other engineers.

Outline

Five years with no growth

Career turning point: joining Vipshop

First experience as a tech lead

First experience as a tech manager

First experience as a backend tech lead

Five Years with No Growth

Like a headless fly, I kept bumping around without achieving anything.

During those five years the author worked at four traditional companies, often switching jobs for a small salary increase, without any career plan or mentorship.

Lack of good mentors and friends to guide you.

Without guidance, it is easy to stay stuck in a low‑skill loop for a decade.

Reasons for stagnation included:

Outsourcing jobs offered only low‑impact backend systems with minimal technical requirements.

Non‑outsourcing firms also had low expectations, providing no design or code‑quality guidance.

The author admits needing a mentor to “open his eyes.”

In traditional companies, programmers rarely encounter great projects or teams; HR may view such experience as worthless, prompting a move to a better company.

Career Turning Point: Joining Vipshop

After marriage, the author's wife urged him to “reset” his résumé by moving to an internet company.

Prepare to fail repeatedly, then fight back; go to an internet company and clean up your résumé, otherwise your future will become harder.

Realizing his résumé lacked highlights, he applied to several Guangzhou internet firms, failing multiple interviews that exposed gaps in JVM, concurrency, and high‑availability knowledge.

After six months of intensive study, he finally entered Vipshop in 2015 at a lower salary and rank, but the opportunity to work on core system rewrites during a major traffic surge dramatically improved his Java, system design, and architecture skills.

He was promoted to senior developer (P3) and requested to lead a small team, but was told no positions were available, leading him to resign after nearly three years.

Age and limited technical talent made a pure expert path unsuitable.

Strong interest and potential in project management.

No team lead vacancy at the time.

He then pursued technical management roles.

Early career advice: avoid frequent, aimless job hopping; a good internet company’s core department accelerates growth.

First Experience as a Tech Lead

Unable to join a large firm as a lead, he accepted a role at a small e‑commerce startup, leading a 7‑person team under tight, reverse‑planned deadlines.

Big boss announces a product launch, while my team hasn’t written a single line of code.

He wore three hats: architect, project manager, and people manager, often sleeping on the office sofa to meet deadlines.

Gained hands‑on team leadership experience.

Improved project management under pressure.

Learned that startups prioritize delivery over long‑term technical planning.

Realized the importance of strong personal technical ability.

Built valuable industry contacts.

First Experience as a Tech Manager

After the startup folded, he joined a restaurant‑tech company as a tech manager of a 13‑person backend team.

One‑on‑one meetings to identify bottlenecks.

Hands‑on incident handling to understand the system.

Led a major rewrite of core applications from PHP to Java, improving stability and delivery speed.

He personally took on on‑call duties for three months, using real incidents to quickly learn the business and build credibility.

Directly handling problems accelerates learning because the issues are concrete and immediate.

The rewrite took over ten months, after which the system’s stability was praised by the CEO, and he was promoted to senior tech manager.

First Experience as a Backend Tech Lead

In February 2022 he moved to a new company as backend tech lead, attracted by strong capital backing, market leadership, and a solid CTO.

He faced challenges adapting to rigorous technical standards, high expectations for architecture, code quality, and performance testing, which initially made him feel his previous experience was insufficient.

Admitting shortcomings and communicating openly with leadership helped him adjust.

Maintaining a good mindset and accepting skill gaps while striving to close them is essential.

Some problems simply require time to solve.

After a year of intense learning, he felt his growth had accelerated dramatically, gaining skills typical of a technical director.

Set high standards for the team; let under‑performers go.

Learned systematic, long‑term system design for large promotions.

Mastered personal time management.

Built end‑to‑end development processes from scratch.

Conclusion

Key takeaways:

Job changes should follow a clear career plan and represent upward moves.

Each new level brings heavy workload but also rapid growth.

Learning from senior experts improves growth quality.

Admitting weaknesses is not shameful; openness with leaders helps.

Maintain a positive mindset, accept gaps, and work to reduce them.

Team management skills are best learned through practice.

Imagine where you will be in ten years.

Author: SamDeepThinking

Link: https://juejin.cn/post/7196496365030146108

Source: Juejin