Less than 5 years 41%
5-10 years 27%
10-15 years 14%
As you can see, there has been a massive supply increase of junior engineers (probably entering the industry). And this massive increase will in a few years result in a massive increase in senior engineers. Right now being a senior engineer is still a huge advantage but that will diminish quickly over time.
Personal anecdote, at 12+ years in the industry I don't really go to StackOverflow anymore so I wouldn't have even seen the survey. The kind of questions I Google now are most often answered only in Github Issues.
As my sibling poster indicates, the SO survey is a convenience sample not a census of coders. If you look at the 2016 survey, the 0-5 years experience cohort is larger (50.3%) than than it is in 2019, so I am not sure we can make those kinds of conclusions about the wider industry.
Just confirmed it, and that's super interesting. I wonder if it's due to the phrasing of the question though (how long since programming vs. how long coding professionally).
Less than 5 years 41% 5-10 years 27% 10-15 years 14%
As you can see, there has been a massive supply increase of junior engineers (probably entering the industry). And this massive increase will in a few years result in a massive increase in senior engineers. Right now being a senior engineer is still a huge advantage but that will diminish quickly over time.