Why nobody hires junior developers anymore according to an engineering manager

Meet Gregory Witek 🇳🇱! Greg is an experienced developer and engineering manager currently working at Booking.com. There, he made an alarming observation:  While the industry is going nuts for experienced Senior developers, it would seem no one is really hiring junior developers. Why?

In this episode, we explore the state of the junior developer job market and how you can maximise your chance for success. Don't worry! Becoming a Junior developer was always going to be tough. Gregory maintains there's room for everyone in this industry and even shares what he would specifically do with the benefit of all his experience breaking into tech and now hiring developers.

🔗 Connect with Gregory

• 👨🏻‍💼 LinkedIn
• 🌐 Website
• 👩‍🚀 GitHub
• 🐦 Twitter

⏰ Timestamps

• Introduction (00:00)
• Becoming an engineering manager (01:24)
• Why nobody hires juniors anymore (02:20)
• The tragedy of commons (04:37)
• Companies who only hire mid-level developers cause problems (08:37)
• Changing jobs normally yields the most profitable salary bump (11:02)
• Don't we need more juniors to satisfy the demand for online software and services created during the pandemic? (12:14)
• Juniors are needed but not right now it seems (14:57)
• Onboarding junior developers remotely is hard (16:56)
• You can still find success! (19:07)
• Companies where you'll have the best chance of success as a junior (19:54)
• How Gregory found his first tech job (22:58)
• Even if you lack experience you can contribute to experience or volunteer (24:12)
• If you don't have a job your job is finding a job (25:25)
• How to know if you're ready to apply for jobs (26:53)
• Always ask for feedback and don't be afraid to apply again (28:40)
• How to impress Gregory as a candidate (30:02)
• How much time to engineering managers spend per resume or application? (31:45)
• What Alex learned about finding work from Tinder (33:11)
• What motivates Gregory to help? (36:12)

🧰 Resources mentioned

• Why nobody hires junior developers and what happens next by Gregory
• GitLab Handbook

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