I'm graduating from a developer bootcamp in Portland, OR next month. I have extensive startup experience in non-developer roles. As I'm pounding the pavement looking for my first jr. developer gig, I'm finding many companies are turning their backs on jr. developer candidates without reviewing work / resumes / etc at all. It seems like a lot of people are excited about training jr. devs, but not excited about hiring them. Does anyone have any tips for a new jr. dev out in the wild? Why are companies reluctant to hire jrs?
Ask HN: Why Will No One Hire Jr. Devs?
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Re: Ask HN: Why Will No One Hire Jr. Devs?
#2why don't you send an email to fotoroll at gmail dot com with your resume ?
Re: Ask HN: Why Will No One Hire Jr. Devs?
#3Don't call yourself a "Jr."
Re: Ask HN: Why Will No One Hire Jr. Devs?
#4My email address is in my profile. Please send me a resume and a little more information about yourself.
Re: Ask HN: Why Will No One Hire Jr. Devs?
#5Don't call yourself a "Jr."
+1 on this.
If you were hiring, you probably wouldn't choose someone who describes themselves as a novice. Don't focus on your lack of experience, but your other attributes.
Re: Ask HN: Why Will No One Hire Jr. Devs?
#6look for a developer without startup experience and have you both forge ahead with a startup.
Re: Ask HN: Why Will No One Hire Jr. Devs?
#7Because developers who are familiar with these kind of bootcamps realize that the graduates that come out aren't going to be a net positive on the team.
Re: Ask HN: Why Will No One Hire Jr. Devs?
#8I don't think this is true at all. Nothing about my experience suggests this is the case. There's a very specific stage of startup that usually has little use for Jr. Devs - growing from seed to A round requires onboarding experts. But going from 0->seed or seed->validation or A/B round -> larger round or IPO requires lots of Jr. Devs.
Re: Ask HN: Why Will No One Hire Jr. Devs?
#9Companies won’t/shouldn't hire Jr devs unless they have the bandwidth and desire to mentor them. They may also see your non-dev work as a potential distraction.
Re: Ask HN: Why Will No One Hire Jr. Devs?
#10By Jr. do you mean a paid internship? And when you say no one is hiring, do you mean in Portland, OR, or including SF?