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Discussion on: You Deserve to be a Software Developer

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Esteban Hernández

If a company cannot hire junior devs because its senior devs don't have time to mentor them, then that company is already stretching its senior devs too thin.

I personally agree with those that say that people who have been coding for less than a year will hardly have enough knowledge to work a realistic junior developer position. However, I had been coding for 10 years on my own before landing my first real, dev job (as a junior dev) and found myself doing most of the mentoring. Part of my responsibilities as a junior was to integrate and teach the use of Docker, Javascript, Angular and Go to all of the senior devs who worked almost exclusively with Java (directly on Windows) for the last decade. Obviously, the company leveraged my lack of "real" experience to try and stick me with a miserable salary (for dev positions). This is a common practice in neoliberal America where salaries are based off negotiations not credentials.

I obviously receive mentoring from the senior devs in matters of management and design which IMO is more valuable than any of the technologies I brought along. They may be outdated soon but software development is still a growing field when it comes to the administration of labor and organization of tasks.

I think companies are mistaking "junior dev" for "experienced software developer that hasn't worked for a F500 company".