Over 20+ years of working with, leading, mentoring, and hiring developers, I've seen many brilliant hackers. But so often these coding "ninjas" and "wizards" went unnoticed, while much less "rockstar" developers made a splash and rose through the ranks. It's not magic. And it's not luck. It's because being a great software developer is not about coding skills. It's about helping your team, product, and company succeed. Understanding this let me grow to senior, lead, and finally VP. And, along the way, help many other developers advance their careers. But developing the necessary skills and applying them in practice is hard. It took me years of trial and error, of rabbit holes and dead ends. I want your journey to senior and beyond to go smoother, without wasting so much time as I did.