I’ve got twenty five years in and I know how good I’ve got it. I may not always be able to get the job I want, but I don’t ever have to worry about not working. That’s an incredible luxury. But also, unfortunately it really sucks training up completely green developers. They often contribute negative value to the team and then once you finally get them to the point where you can start relying on them, they leave or your team gets broken up. That’s not the fault of young developers at all, but it’s just a reality we all have to navigate. I do enjoy working with enthusiastic and curious people, and experience is certainly no guarantee of that. And I like having new perspectives and skills, even if I hate to crush their expectations with the reality of development. We currently can’t use fucking lambdas because they aren’t supported on our ancient version of Spring.
I’ve heard this a lot and I get it, but I feel like there’s a breaking point where most juniors just won’t put up with it and there will be a drought of genuinely good talent in the industry. Personally the vast majority of people I know have given up on working whatever they wanted to work in (Embedded systems, cybersecurity, gaming, etc) and just became web developers or settle for whatever “easy” jobs they could find. Ironically you catch companies that don’t hire juniors say things like “It’s so hard to find anyone that cares” or recruiters saying hiring for one spot takes months because they can’t find the perfect candidate. Something has to change imo, the path should become clearer than telling everyone to get 5 years of experience then come back when they’re ready.
This isn’t mentioning how recruiters now rely on AI to scan a CV and filter people. It doesn’t even matter how good you are most of the time or what amazing projects you could make, you’ll get filtered if you don’t have that arbitrary thing they’re asking for.
I completely agree. The experience sucks. I almost think programming would be better to follow a skilled trade path like electricians or something with apprenticeships and the like. The current system isn’t working for anyone, really. I mean I suppose it works for people like me but that’s not sustainable.
there will be a drought of genuinely good talent in the industry.
You’re exactly right, and there’s actually already such a drought. We had this same conversation 15 years ago and it doesn’t feel like we’ve made much progress.
has to change imo, the path should become clearer than telling everyone to get 5 years of experience then come back when they’re ready.
Absolutely, it must change. We need to find ways to do better.
I’ve got twenty five years in and I know how good I’ve got it. I may not always be able to get the job I want, but I don’t ever have to worry about not working. That’s an incredible luxury. But also, unfortunately it really sucks training up completely green developers. They often contribute negative value to the team and then once you finally get them to the point where you can start relying on them, they leave or your team gets broken up. That’s not the fault of young developers at all, but it’s just a reality we all have to navigate. I do enjoy working with enthusiastic and curious people, and experience is certainly no guarantee of that. And I like having new perspectives and skills, even if I hate to crush their expectations with the reality of development. We currently can’t use fucking lambdas because they aren’t supported on our ancient version of Spring.
I’ve heard this a lot and I get it, but I feel like there’s a breaking point where most juniors just won’t put up with it and there will be a drought of genuinely good talent in the industry. Personally the vast majority of people I know have given up on working whatever they wanted to work in (Embedded systems, cybersecurity, gaming, etc) and just became web developers or settle for whatever “easy” jobs they could find. Ironically you catch companies that don’t hire juniors say things like “It’s so hard to find anyone that cares” or recruiters saying hiring for one spot takes months because they can’t find the perfect candidate. Something has to change imo, the path should become clearer than telling everyone to get 5 years of experience then come back when they’re ready.
This isn’t mentioning how recruiters now rely on AI to scan a CV and filter people. It doesn’t even matter how good you are most of the time or what amazing projects you could make, you’ll get filtered if you don’t have that arbitrary thing they’re asking for.
I completely agree. The experience sucks. I almost think programming would be better to follow a skilled trade path like electricians or something with apprenticeships and the like. The current system isn’t working for anyone, really. I mean I suppose it works for people like me but that’s not sustainable.
You’re exactly right, and there’s actually already such a drought. We had this same conversation 15 years ago and it doesn’t feel like we’ve made much progress.
Absolutely, it must change. We need to find ways to do better.