This is a submission for the 2026 WeCoded Challenge: Echoes of Experience
A trip down memory lane
I still remember my final interview.
It wasn’t a coding challenge or another algorithm question.
It was just a conversation.
We talked about my background in business and finance.
The internships I had done.
The projects I had built, including a drone media company and a project management app I had sold to an architecture firm in Belgium.
My short experience as a product manager in a startup.
Compared to the previous rounds that were full of logical tests, coding exercises, and pair programming, this one felt different.
I wasn’t trying to prove I could code but just talking about my life.
I was showing how I think, how I learn, and how I approach problems through my past experiences.
A week later, I got the offer.
Not for a standard role, but for an engineering graduate program.
And looking back, that moment changed everything...
The fast track wasn’t accidental
I went from coding bootcamp to senior software engineer in just over 5 years.
I worked hard.
I built side projects.
I kept learning constantly and found great mentors.
But the biggest accelerator early on?
The structure and exposure from that graduate program.
It gave me:
- exposure to different teams and problem spaces
- hands-on experience across technologies
- a safe environment to learn fast and make mistakes
- a cohort of peers growing at the same pace
Over the following years, I noticed something interesting.
Many of the highest-performing engineers in the company came from that same graduate track.
Not just technically, but in how they contributed to culture, collaboration, and leadership.
Why junior engineers outperform (when given the chance)
From what I observed, graduate engineers tend to overperform for a few key reasons:
They’re hungry
We were eager to prove ourselves. Every task mattered.They learn fast
Coming from bootcamps or self-taught paths, learning was already part of our identity.They bring different perspectives
Many of us didn’t come from traditional CS backgrounds.
We approached problems more practically, often with product or user context in mind.
That mix created strong synergies within teams:
- theoretical depth from experienced engineers
- practical execution and fresh thinking from juniors
And the ROI for companies is real
Investing in junior developers is a healthy strategy.
Here’s what I saw:
High employee retention
When a company invests in you early, you stay. Trust goes both ways.Stronger leadership pipeline
Training juniors forces senior engineers to mentor and that builds leadership skills fast.More diversity in hiring
In my experience, graduate programs brought in more women and more diverse backgrounds than traditional hiring pipelines.Stronger engineering culture
A company known for growing talent attracts better people over time.
What helped me go from junior to senior
On a more personal level, here are a few learnings that made a big difference for me in the last years:
Leverage your non-technical strengths
My background in business and product helped me early on.
I contributed through communication, organization, and initiative, not just codeAdopt a T-shaped development approach
Go deep in one area, but stay curious across others.Be visible
Share your work. Communicate progress. Talk about impact.
Silence slows your growth.Document your journey
I kept a developer journal to track what I learned and achieved.
This helped massively with confidence, reflection and arguing my case at promotion rounds.Build relationships
Inside and outside of work. Your network compounds just like your skills.-
Get involved beyond your team
During my time at the company I:- spoke at internal conferences
- contributed to the engineering blog
- joined hackathons
- participated in threat modeling sessions
The human side of growth
When I left the company, what struck me the most wasn’t the projects, nor the crazy amount of merch I had accumulated over the years...
It was the people.
At my farewell drinks, many of those who showed up were from my original graduate cohort.
We had all grown not just as engineers, but as people.
And that’s when it really hit me:
The real ROI of investing in juniors isn’t just technical output.
It’s the humans you nurture and the culture you foster over time.
Why I’m sharing this
Two reasons.
1) For companies
Cutting junior roles because of AI-driven productivity gains is a short-term decision.
From what I’ve witnessed, it’s a mistake.
The long-term ROI of investing in junior engineers, especially through structured programs, is massive.
And much of that value is human, not just technical.
2) For those on non-traditional paths
If you’re coming from a bootcamp, self-taught journey, or an “irregular” background suffering from imposter syndrome:
That’s not a weakness.
It’s your edge.
We live in a time where different perspectives are more valuable than ever.
Lean into them. Keep building. Keep learning.
None of this happens alone.
This is also a thank you to everyone who helped me along the way:
- mentors
- managers
- teammates
- fellow builders
- friends and family
💬 Discussion
I’m curious to hear your thoughts:
Have you seen junior developers outperform expectations in your teams?
Are companies underinvesting in junior talent today?
How has AI changed (or not changed) the value of hiring juniors in your experience?
If you’ve gone through a graduate program, did it accelerate your growth?
For senior engineers: how has mentoring juniors impacted your own development?
Top comments (10)
This really highlights something a lot of companies miss — junior performance isn’t random, it’s designed.
Where I’ve seen juniors accelerate fastest, there’s always:
Without that, even motivated people struggle to scale.
AI is starting to change this dynamic quite a bit — not by removing the need for juniors, but by making it easier to build those environments at scale.
Feels like the real opportunity now is designing systems that turn early talent into high performers faster.
Out of curiosity — did the structure of the program or the mentorship culture have more impact for you?
I am glad to hear that your son has this mindset. Curiosity, work ethic, and a willingness to keep learning are fundamental!
I agree, the learning design is definitely key. The program I went through had us rotate through various teams in our first year to get exposure to different problem spaces. We would also have tasks to complete and group exercises which were not directly tied to a team but at a program level, which allowed us to train our skills and make mistakes without a direct impact on any team or end customer. The content was structured with a clear onboarding, multiple checkpoints throughout the year and assessments.
To answer your question, it was indeed the program itself that was very valuable to me. However the people around me were also a huge positive factor as there was a sense of community and camaraderie in learning and struggling together.
I find your take on using AI to accelerate junior learning and contribution a very interesting one. I imagine that striking a balance between structure and speed is crucial here.
Have you seen any valuable use applications of AI for junior training? When I did my junior training, AI wasn't widely adopted so I am curious.
That sounds like a really well-designed program — especially the mix of structured learning and “safe to fail” environments. That’s something a lot of organisations still struggle to get right. In my experience, a genuine “no blame” culture is critical to making that kind of environment work.
On the AI side, what’s been interesting is how it can support that same structure rather than replace it.
Some of the more valuable use cases I’m seeing are:
Helping juniors break down complex tasks into structured steps (almost like a guided thinking process)
Acting as a “first pass” reviewer — giving feedback before something reaches a manager
Generating scenario-based exercises quickly, so people can practice without impacting live environments
Supporting knowledge recall in context, rather than relying on static training materials
But you’re absolutely right — the balance is key.
Without structure, AI just speeds up confusion.
With the right structure, it can genuinely accelerate confidence and contribution.
I’ve been exploring this more recently, particularly around how AI can support structured training in areas like safety and compliance — where getting things wrong has real consequences.
Still early days for the AI part of course, but it’s a really interesting space.
Those are valuable use cases indeed! Thanks for sharing.
I can imagine companies could get a ton of value from internal tooling that compounds their compnay culture and engineering best practices and offers it to juniors to train with for cases suc as knowledge recall, code reviews, explanation of tasks etc.
Spot on - companies who stop hiring juniors "because AI" is a knee-jerk reaction, and it's short-sighted - I wholly believe in the value good juniors can bring!
(I also believe in what AI can potentially bring - but only when used methodically and intelligently ...)
Exactly! It does feel short-sighted, it feels like a lot of companies are using AI as an excuse to go through general cost cutting without looking bad in front of their shareholders.
But the long term positive impacts of keeping a healthy hiring pipeline for juniors/trainees are non negligible. But harder to quantify which is why these often go through cost cutting in the short term.
Yeah well they'll change course when the downsides become apparent, for now it's mainly hype/gut feeling driven ...
Yes, a classic. We have seen that pattern over and over...
History Doesn't Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes.
Great perspective, Julien! As a developer currently building my own project, I see this every day. The 'hunger to learn' and the fresh energy junior developers bring can truly transform a product. Sometimes we hit roadblocks with SEO or technical debt, but that drive to find a solution is what makes the difference. Thanks for sharing this
Thanks süleyman! I am glad this resonated with you.
And best of luck with your project! What is the project about? If you don't feel comfortable saying, no problem at all! I am just curious :)
This resonates deeply especially the point about companies cutting junior roles because of AI productivity gains being a short-term decision.
There's an irony I've been thinking about a lot lately: AI is making senior engineers faster, but it's also quietly eroding the learning pipeline that creates senior engineers. Code review, debugging sessions, reading someone else's messy code that's where junior developers develop the instinct and judgment that no AI can hand them. If we automate all of that away, we don't just lose junior roles. We stop producing the next generation of seniors.
Your point about non-traditional backgrounds being an edge, not a weakness, is one I'd underline twice. The engineers I've seen ask the best why questions in code reviews are often the ones who came from product, finance, or other fields because they haven't been trained to accept technical decisions at face value.
Thanks for writing this it's a perspective the dev community needs to hear more loudly right now.