In my local dialect, there's a proverb that says that someone who knows more than you in your particular field is your boss in that field. There are however those who believe that a heightened level of intelligence and experience in other fields can level the playing field a little bit.
Many years ago, Mr. Bill Gates and Mr. Magnus Carlsen (one of the best chess players around) played a game of chess. As a Microsoft fanboy I would have put my money on Mr. Bill Gates. Mr. Magnus Carlsen won the game in just 9 moves and 80 seconds. In software engineering, the gap in experience can also be equally vast, there's a hierarchy of utility that ultimately fosters respect among software engineers, in the presence of programming challenges organizations and junior software engineers tend to appreciate the value of senior software engineers.
Junior engineers looking to grow quickly are always advised to find mentors who can point them in the right direction, there's so much information that it's easy to get lost, having someone point you in the right direction can accelerate career growth and most importantly improving programming skill.