I teach at a Bootcamp and see a lot junior developers looking for jobs. Many of them complain of it being hard to find jobs and it is. But I don’t think it is any harder than say 10 years ago when I got started. The main the problem is they’ve never interviewed for a technical position before or aren’t looking in the right places for jobs. Also a lot of jobs are perfectly suited for juniors but it doesn’t reflect that in the job description. So there are a lot of things that make the job search hard and frustrating but the jobs are out there. And I would love to see more companies more actively mentor people too. But those companies do exist today. It’s just a numbers game. If you can hold out, you’ll find it.
Who Killed the Junior Developer?
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Re: Who Killed the Junior Developer?
#12This reminds my of my job search 5 year ago after I graduated college. It took me 8 months to land my first job and I was living with my mother. I did work on some side projects to build my knowledge on some technologies. When my mom asked me what I was doing and I said I worked on project 'x' she would say "I think you should be sending out more job applications instead." Working on side projects is not an option for everyone.
What did get me hired was neither working on side projects nor blanket submissions of applications. A friend introduced me to another friend who's company he worked for was hiring and he gave me a list of open reqs for jobs he knew managers were looking to fill. I got two calls for interviews the next week and got an offer for one job by the end of the month.
IMHO your network, not even what you know or what you've done, is your most important asset when looking for work.
Re: Who Killed the Junior Developer?
#13Isn't the problem the high turnover rate in the industry? Why invest in educating someone if they are going to quit in one year or so?
It's a bit of a chicken or the egg problem. Why stay at a company that doesn't invest in you?
Re: Who Killed the Junior Developer?
#14I think the "Junior" title is used entirely by companies to get a discount at salary negotiations these days. I work with a large mix of mid level, senior, and "Junior" developers by title. The practical difference in our technical skill levels is almost nonexistent. The proper progression should be: Intern -> Developer -> Senior/Lead, with Senior/Lead denoting that certain expectations are made of your organizationa…
There is absolutely a skill difference between senior and junior. The problem is that junior developers today somehow think they deserve mid or senior level salaries despite not having the skills.
Developers are being told not only that higher level skills like algorithms and big-oh don't matter, but that they are such special people that they can even do jobs completely outside of their specialty like design, management, and other things.
Developers want to be paid like lawyers, but without the equivalent domain knowledge in CS that lawyers have in law.
Re: Who Killed the Junior Developer?
#15Isn't the problem the high turnover rate in the industry? Why invest in educating someone if they are going to quit in one year or so?
'Why invest in educating someone if they are going to quit in one year or so?'
'What happens if you don't invest in them, and they decide to stay?' - Quote from a management guru, can't remember his/her name
Re: Who Killed the Junior Developer?
#16Most junior level positions are being filled with the massive influx of new grads from really strong intern programs at most companies now. If you're in college now, make sure you get an internship at a company in your field. If it's too late for that, then you'll have to do a little extra work and probably work on a couple side projects and post them on GitHub. That first job will always be the hardest to get, so do…
This. If you're graduating without an internship or two, you're in trouble.
Re: Who Killed the Junior Developer?
#17The growth of undergrand CS program enrollment is pretty insane, same with bootcamps.
Lots of these people have no real interest in the positions outside of pay, which is fine for most careers. But in tech we put a lot of value on self learning and interest.
I've definitely seen the number of new grad applicants and bootcamp grad applicants at least quadruple in the past few years.
Most of these can make an Angular app or write an algorithm on a whiteboard but know nothing outside of what was taught in the school/bootcamp.
I find these types really hard to work with, because software is evolving ever so fast and requires such rapid uptake of knowledge that those who aren't self motivated require a lot of reinforcement and have drastically reduced productivity on the job.
Re: Who Killed the Junior Developer?
#18Most junior level positions are being filled with the massive influx of new grads from really strong intern programs at most companies now. If you're in college now, make sure you get an internship at a company in your field. If it's too late for that, then you'll have to do a little extra work and probably work on a couple side projects and post them on GitHub. That first job will always be the hardest to get, so do…
Are you talking about internships or “internships?”
Re: Who Killed the Junior Developer?
#19Isn't the problem the high turnover rate in the industry? Why invest in educating someone if they are going to quit in one year or so?
It's a bit of a chicken or the egg problem. Why stay at a company that doesn't invest in you?
Most developers doing the one year stint thing don't care about anything other than salary. No matter what you do for them they will jump after a year. Seeing that pattern on a resume a big warning sign. These people are simply mercenary and deserve to be treated as such.
Re: Who Killed the Junior Developer?
#20I teach at a Bootcamp and see a lot junior developers looking for jobs. Many of them complain of it being hard to find jobs and it is. But I don’t think it is any harder than say 10 years ago when I got started. The main the problem is they’ve never interviewed for a technical position before or aren’t looking in the right places for jobs. Also a lot of jobs are perfectly suited for juniors but it doesn’t reflect tha…
Searching for a job is way easier if you have a professional network to draw on and beginners, pretty much by definition, really don't.