Becoming a lead isn’t just another line in your resume, it’s a mental shift. It’s the moment you go from being a developer to someone responsible for your code and the entire team. Next, you’re also listening, mentoring, negotiating, motivating, and knowing how to find common ground even in challenging situations.
Today, I’m a Dev Lead at EXANTE. We develop internal services for a select group of internal stakeholders. But my journey started long before that — with informal leadership, a few mentorship flops, and plenty of lessons learned the hard way.
Here’s what that path looked like.
