👉 Agencies need to start prioritizing hiring entry level developers. 👈
It’s no secret that there are a surplus of entry level developers who are becoming disheartened with how difficult it is to find a job in the web industry. Months of job searching, 6 round interview processes, a take home challenge, pairing with a potential employer only to be passed over by someone with marginally more experience. It’s a frustrating time to try and find your way into our industry.
Capable agencies need to recognize the gold mine of talent that exists out there and start hiring these people. There’s a fear from a large portion of leadership teams that hiring a junior dev will cost too much. They fear that their high performers will have their time eaten up by these juniors, and productivity will go down. But [this] [is] [false].
It’s been shown that an effective mentorship program can increase job satisfaction, investment in the company, and ultimately productivity. The shared learning experiences by both mentor and mentee prove to be invaluable and help to foster a culture of continuous learning and collaboration.
There’s a few fundamental things that need to change in the industry for us to truly see the change we need to help reduce the massive backlog of talent that is going unused.
🔴 We need to stop prioritizing formal education or experience when hiring entry level developers.
🟢 Instead we need to start prioritizing enthusiasm in the field and an eagerness to learn. This is far more valuable than a bootcamp certificate. Prioritizing these soft skills will lead to employees willing to grind because you gave them a chance.
🔴 We need to stop writing job descriptions for juniors that include responsibilities that mid level developers wouldn’t even qualify for
🟢 Instead we need to start hiring based on the fundamentals of the web, and stop asking for juniors who know how to “hello world” fifteen different frameworks. Give me someone who has a solid understanding of HTML and Accessibility over someone who has obscure knowledge of a niche framework that was dictated to them by a bootcamp who churns through students just to collect their tuition.
🔴 We need to stop wasting human beings time by requiring them to complete a take home project to “assess their skills”
🟢 Instead we need to start talking to people about their process and how they approached their exisiting projects. Encourage them to explain how they solved a complex issue, or how they worked within a team to complete a project in a set amount of time. Look at something they’ve already worked hard to produce and stop trying to get some weird quasi free labor out of people who are in their fourth round of interviews with another company.
There’s a mutually beneficial way forward for agencies, startups and multi billion dollar companies alike, and it all boils down to reassessing how we foster talent within our industry. Start working towards reacquainting ourselves with the open, accessible, and equitable place that the web can be.
What is your company doing to help foster mentorship and collaboration? Share with the community the positives that you see in the world so we can bring awareness and appreciation for the positives that are out there!
Top comments (25)
I going to add and give some opinions about your. First, the post is great, because it covers many problems with contracts and companies looking for developers.
The first point you talk about, is not simple, because so many companies are looking for people who at least have an engineering degree. Obviously, today, there are so many people that know how programming and they are not for the system program.
That's one of the pints most important in all world. For example, I am from Colombia and live there, and my native language is Spanish, but some companies looking for C1 or C2 English level, which to me is a crazy thing, because, so many developers have a maximum of B2, and these must be sufficient for me.
I had been involved many times in this test, and in the end if the test was not finished at all, the company did not check the code, or the process, just said, it if is not finished, goodbye.
I will add one more, the tech lead or some developer of the team, should check the employee publication, because sometimes there are so many skills in the publication, that in the end, just need three or maybe just two, and the others, could be learning during the job.
Thanks so much for reading Pedro!
It's super frustrating to hear that you've experienced some of more disheartening aspects of the process. The language barrier is something that I didn't consider either, and shares the sentiment that regardless of skill level, hiring managers should emphasize, and prioritize a candidates enthusiasm for learning above the perceived skill level!
You are right, but so many problems come from the initial part of the process. For example, if you read, the job vacancy is for the backend, and you can see the publication has a list of a lot of skills that are supposed do you should have like
We are looking for a backend with knowledge on:
And they love to put, is an advantage to have skills like
And you just see the screen like, exactly, what these people are looking for?
Without a doubt. One of the the things that needs to change in the industry, is how job descriptions are written. All too often recruiters or hiring managers who don't understand the landscape write these job descriptions that are completely unrealistic.
The only suggestion I've been able to make to entry level folks who encounter these job descriptions it to just apply anyway. Even if you don't think you're qualified for the job, apply anyway.
The hope is that you get in front of someone who values your ambition and eagerness to learn and grow.
They are looking for a Node developer with Mongo and they probably have other projects in C#, have them hosted on Azure, AWS etc. To me this says they are looking for someone who would be able to do their core job and maybe help with something else from the list if the need arises. Speaking from experience
For sure, and there's definitely a way to communicate that hope, especially to juniors. A lot of times the way these "nice to have" skills are presented come off as intimidating for someone searching for their first job. Tacking on these technologies to an entry level role needs to be done carefully so as to encourage folks with less experience to still apply.
Definitely just a communication and expectation adjustment that needs to be made in some cases!
Probably, but the problem, is when they put this, in a junior position.
I started studying in July to become a web developer, on my own. I have a lot of motivation and I really want to change my life for the better. I think I have a strong study method, thanks to my mentor (and friend) who has been a developer for many years. When i fell ready and my basic skills are solid i hope i will find a workplace that gives me the growth and continuous training skills I am looking for.
I worked for several years in the manufacturing sector and the things you say also concern this sector. Soft skills are never taken into consideration and priority is given to qualifications that count for little in the job that must be carried out.
There's no doubt that this issue spans industries. I wish you the best of luck in your journey! Thanks for sharing your experience 🙏
Hey Dominic,
First off, excellent article. I'm going to dissect it in this comment, but I still encourage you to share your thoughts as it will make you a better professional in the long run. I've been where you're at (struggling to break into the industry), and while that was a decade ago, many of your points reflect my own experiences. Since that time, I've gained a significant amount of experience, not only as an engineer, but also as a hiring manager. Here's my thoughts to points you've laid out in your article:
I empathize with this point but unfortunately it's not a practical in reality. The plain truth is that an overwhelming majority of businesses have finite time, money, and resources to deliver on its purpose (product or services). Hiring the wrong candidate can have tangible down-stream implications on the health/longevity of a business. Not only would a bad hire subtract diminish those finite resources, but they could have other consequences. For example, if a bad hire caused the company to miss an important deadline, it could result in lost or deferred revenue for a business, which may force the business to shrink its workforce since it can't pay everyone. That may seem a bit dramatic in the context of a junior role, but I have witnessed it - both inside and outside of software development.
Additionally, as someone who's taught bootcamp courses in software development, I have learned that while anyone can learn to code, not everyone is capable of doing it when they think they can.
I don't disagree with this point, but I do think it's important to point out that there is no agreed-upon standard for what makes a Junior/Mid/Senior/etc software engineer. A senior level engineer at a small startup may be considered a junior-level at a FAANG type company.
As much as I loathe the frustration when I fail these tests, I disagree with the premise that we should abolish this type of screening tool. They are very important tool when building teams as it enables hiring managers to onboard team members with a baseline set of skills. While I may not be a fan of abolishing these tests, I do believe we need to make significant improvements to this process across the industry to make these tests more equitable.
Thanks for the super thoughtful comment Joe! For context I myself am not struggling to break into the industry (I've been doing web development for over a decade as well). But I see the struggles of many friends and colleagues, which is where my passion for the topic stems from.
There's no one right or wrong way to do things, I think the main takeaway here is that something needs to change.
I've hired developers, I've employed code challenges, I've even had devs code a website on a whiteboard for me to assess their unassisted knowledge of HTML structure.
What I've seen personally is that there are better ways to assess talent than week long, 40 hour take home tests and pairing interviews. And the industry needs to start prioritizing establishing solid mentorship programs in an effort to reduce the massive backlog of entry level talent that exists.
Thanks again for your thoughtful comment Joe, I appreciate the perspective!
I agree with you, and I have several points that have crossed my mind:
I believe that some people who don't have any work experience yet can potentially outperform and outskill experienced individuals. This is because knowledge resources are readily available on the internet. At the end of the day, it's just a matter of eagerness and motivation to learn that can make the difference.
There needs to be a focus on employees' potential in terms of skills and knowledge. It's hard to believe that recruiters currently prioritize degrees and, even worse, the university's ranking. From my perspective, potential is the key. Let's consider that people with experience and graduates from top universities start at the front. However, no matter where people begin, those starting from behind can overtake them later, thanks to their high acceleration. It's just a matter of time for this to happen, perhaps in two or more years. This represents an aspect of employee investment that companies often overlook.
I'm not blaming current recruiters, but if their job is only extracting information from resumes such as years of experience and education to make decisions, there's no difference from using an AI system. Nowadays, OCR systems can extract information faster and make decisions based on specific criteria.
From my perspective, recruiters should predict which candidates have the most potential. They could use reliable examinations such as aptitude tests, personality assessments, and more.
A lot of times it's even just the feeling you get while interviewing someone. Our industry is unique because we have a portfolio that we can present potential employers. This gives them something physical to base their assessment off of, but a lot of times, especially for entry level folks, this portfolio is not a reflection of their potential.
As someone who's hired and done interviews before, I can tell you with absolute certainty that there are people with skills on paper who seemed lethargic and uninterested during interviews. This leads to me taking a chance on someone with fewer skills on paper, but was engaged and enthusiastic during our conversations.
Potential is absolutely a factor that needs to be taken into account. Appreciate the comment Muhammad!
I think the problem itself could be a great challenge for a web3 based solution for both technical and non-technical skill validation. Who knows 🤭 maybe HackerRank work for that kind of solution.
There's no doubt that something needs to be done. It definitely feels like a systemic change that needs to be addressed.
Thanks for reading!
Hiring is broken, grinding leetcode doesn't translates to scalable systems.
I feel like hiring has been broken forever. I hate it, from both sides of the table -_-
There's no doubt. It's exhausting, and thinking about it for any amount of time can be exhausting. You're definitely not alone!
What can I say, sometimes it seems like they hope that after their seniors and mids won’t be the need to fill with a new generation of devs: AI is gonna seize the occupation.
PS either this is a joke or not, the time will tell us)
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It’s not hiring problem the issue is there are manny freshers since web development has become easy to jump into many are already in the pool
The problem is multi-faceted for sure. The surplus of entry level developers does absolutely mean that folks will have a harder time getting a job quickly. But this is compounded by the fact that agencies and startups seemingly have very few established mentorship processes in place to be able to help make the pool less crowded.
Instead these agencies and startups are focused on hiring unicorns. In our industry no entry level developer should be job hunting for 9 months. There's just too much out there.
You said it correctly. Well said
Rightly said. But given the current situation is a bit tight, else there's always a need for software developers.
Sometimes people need a little nudge to bump them into effective seniors.