It’s hard being a Junior Dev

The industry has moved with such astounding speed that Junior Developers are not as useful as they used to be 10 years ago. I know of companies who specifically hire only Senior Developers, because the tech stack is so complex that training Juniors Developers to the point where they will be able to contribute to the project will take too much time that they rather spend it on doing actual work rather than training.

However

I have interviewed quite several people in the past years and I tend to be lenient to Junior Developers or Fresh Graduates. I tend to be lenient even to Senior Developers. If you do not possess certain technical skills or knowledge it is most certainly not a deal-breaker.

The reason being is because, I am a firm believer in the mantra:

"Skills can be taught. Attitude is forever."

Rock star developers, 10x engineers, ninja dev, whatever titles they are called with... it will not matter if their attitude is crap.

It is quite a turn off when you meet another Engineer, Tech Lead, CTO, KnowItAll who will be like:

“You don’t use AWS S3 to host your project? I am not even going to talk to you.”
🤦🏼‍♂️

Seriously? What's with the Diva attitude? Have we as a community come to that stage?

I mean sure... I understand that maybe your company have certain requirements about your project but AWS can certainly be taught. Best practices for writing commit messages can certainly be taught. How to handle merge conflict can certainly be taught.

But attitude. That is a deal-breaker. That is forever. If your cup is already full of yourself, how are you going to bond with the team?

I have reviewed tonnes of online portfolio and they range from simple Github pages to simple HTML, CSS, JS hosted on a popular hosting sites. I even received a zip file once. I have no problem with HostGator or GoDaddy. I think they are great tools. So are cloud solutions like AWS. That’s what it is. It’s a tool. If all you have is a hammer, everything will look like a nail.

Sure AWS S3 works great! Don't get me wrong. I love it as well. But it does not need to be the answer to everything.

Same with any Javascript framework. Every Javascript framework is great. React, Angular, Vue whatever. I don't deny they are all great. But it does not need to be the answer to everything.

We should not be over zealous in our mindset to say, “start every project as a React app”.

My point is

I think Senior Engineers, myself included, have to remind ourselves that we too started from Zero. When we were born our first word was not "Hello World". And at one point at the start of our career someone gave us a chance.

So why not have a bite of the humble pie and forward that same chance we got to a Junior Developer who is trying to start his career?

It can be a simple HR arrangement, 6 months trial period with a probationary salary. Show me you are hungry to learn and absorb like a sponge. Logistical set up can be fairly basic. A laptop on a desk with an external monitor. Access can be limited via github. Progress review to occur at the end of every month. After the 6 months the team will review you and decide if you stay or if you go.

Imagine it like a software engineer’s version of Hell’s Kitchen where Gordan Ramsay complains of compiler error instead of raw scallops.

Make it through the 6 months and we will review your HR arrangement.

I am not saying to accept every Tom, Dick and Harry. There should be a thorough vetting process but it should be focused on attitude and mindset. Technical skills are important but it should not be too specifics like "How would you write so-so type function?"

Anyway what do you guys think? Let me know in the comments if this whole entire thing is nonsense. Or what was the "chance" that you got when you first started?

Leave a ♥️ 🦄 or 🔖 and +FOLLOW and I will see you guys next time! Peace! 😊