[btschaegg]

I get that this will sound overly snarky, but does "strategic thinking" for non-lead programmers involve "actively resisted multiple manager requests to implement a hack because of an arbitrary deadline"?

(Of course it doesn't. But maybe it should...)

[bonzini]

It's not snarky, I agree with you actually. :)

But seriously... In general, "strategic thinking" for junior people is basically understanding your role in the team, the team's long term strategy, the team's collaborations with other parts of the company, and stuff like that.