I love your focus on the energy that young talent brings into the workplace. I can also think of many of my previous co-ops and new grad employees who had that energy. It was contagious.
Tough time for juniors and other recent grads! Hoping more companies see juniors as an investment in order to keep the talent pool stable.
I wonder if a lot of companies not hiring juniors are thinking that AI will continue to improve to the point where they don't need junior or senior devs. So they are just hoping the seniors don't leave before that happens.
I do think that some orgs are harboring hope of AI getting to a point where it replaces most devs - even if they won't admit it.
To be clear: I think they're wrong/high off the hype train! But even if they were right, it's pretty dumb to prioritize an eventual hypothetical over what they actually need now.
But most of the orgs I talk to are just under the gun to deliver, don't have time to bring someone up to speed, and don't have work that juniors can immediately do. They're not thinking about long-term talent and don't realize that AI has actually made it easier to turn juniors into seniors quickly.
You are spot on. What I love about college hires is they don’t have any bad company culture habits yet. They can adapt to what we need quickly. They also have more energy than us elder engineers and they love learning new tools and are generally faster at learning them. Why would I not want a college hire?!?!
The bit about AI lowering onboarding costs is the angle most people miss. If anything, juniors with decent AI skills can contribute faster now than they could five years ago. The real problem is that nobody's updating how they interview for this. I dug into the interview format mess specifically and it's wild how many companies still run 2022-era whiteboard rounds while expecting AI fluency on day one. Wrote it up here: https://reading.sh/the-hiring-playbook-in-2026-looks-nothing-like-2023-9fe9c2a52ffb
Senior developers are better at anticipating problems, and know what won't work. Junior developers have the advantage that they don't know what "won't work"...
This is a solid read and a refreshing antidote to a lot of ‘AI-hot-takes-spun into-a-cluster-article’. I wonder if what you said applies to other Jr roles in tech (and beyond, to an extent)…
There’s a lot at play here. You’ve covered the gist of the argument but a few things off the top of my head that could be worth looking into in a separate article:
- Quality control and verification with junior engineers vs senior SDEs, AI can’t teach this (yet)
- Many graduates today grew up in the era of smartphones, so typing on a keyboard was more of an acquired skill
- The supply demand issue you addressed, is being corrected right now and the relatively high unemployment rate of younger engineers reflects that
- Senior engineers can and do pick up AI workflows in ways that boost team productivity
- Most resilient companies won’t over-hire juniors but they also have a talent pipeline that is more selective now
- When you are a fresh graduate who picked CS as their major because you saw it seemed like a good choice in 2021 during the height of the COVID-induced tech boom, you become part of the oversupply problem
Amazing comment and totally agree with most of the above! Only thing for me: I'm not convinced we have a real oversupply problem.
Every tech startup/company I know is still rabidly hiring for good talent. They can't fill skilled roles fast enough. The difference is that many of them are overlooking juniors because 1.) they don't have "junior level" work for them to do immediately and 2.) are underestimating how quickly AI enables juniors to become seniors.
I think it's also important to maintain context - it's totally normal for lots of people to get weeded out at the entry level! Like lots of aspiring investment bankers, consultants, marketers, designers, etc. just don't make it for lots of legitimate reasons. Engineering has just stopped being a weird anomaly where anyone who wanted a job could find one.
This is a fantastic article. I wrote one on the same topic in October. Maybe you would be interested. https://dinahbeingme.substack.com/p/the-broken-rung-what-happens-when
I love your focus on the energy that young talent brings into the workplace. I can also think of many of my previous co-ops and new grad employees who had that energy. It was contagious.
Such a good read and kicking myself for not seeing it when it came out!
And the energy/vibe is 💯💯💯. I get frustrated when techbros mischaracterize it as 9/9/6-style "hustle" or outright ageism.
Tough time for juniors and other recent grads! Hoping more companies see juniors as an investment in order to keep the talent pool stable.
I wonder if a lot of companies not hiring juniors are thinking that AI will continue to improve to the point where they don't need junior or senior devs. So they are just hoping the seniors don't leave before that happens.
I do think that some orgs are harboring hope of AI getting to a point where it replaces most devs - even if they won't admit it.
To be clear: I think they're wrong/high off the hype train! But even if they were right, it's pretty dumb to prioritize an eventual hypothetical over what they actually need now.
But most of the orgs I talk to are just under the gun to deliver, don't have time to bring someone up to speed, and don't have work that juniors can immediately do. They're not thinking about long-term talent and don't realize that AI has actually made it easier to turn juniors into seniors quickly.
I think that is fair to say.
You are spot on. What I love about college hires is they don’t have any bad company culture habits yet. They can adapt to what we need quickly. They also have more energy than us elder engineers and they love learning new tools and are generally faster at learning them. Why would I not want a college hire?!?!
The bit about AI lowering onboarding costs is the angle most people miss. If anything, juniors with decent AI skills can contribute faster now than they could five years ago. The real problem is that nobody's updating how they interview for this. I dug into the interview format mess specifically and it's wild how many companies still run 2022-era whiteboard rounds while expecting AI fluency on day one. Wrote it up here: https://reading.sh/the-hiring-playbook-in-2026-looks-nothing-like-2023-9fe9c2a52ffb
Senior developers are better at anticipating problems, and know what won't work. Junior developers have the advantage that they don't know what "won't work"...
This is a solid read and a refreshing antidote to a lot of ‘AI-hot-takes-spun into-a-cluster-article’. I wonder if what you said applies to other Jr roles in tech (and beyond, to an extent)…
Anyway, subbed!
There’s a lot at play here. You’ve covered the gist of the argument but a few things off the top of my head that could be worth looking into in a separate article:
- Quality control and verification with junior engineers vs senior SDEs, AI can’t teach this (yet)
- Many graduates today grew up in the era of smartphones, so typing on a keyboard was more of an acquired skill
- The supply demand issue you addressed, is being corrected right now and the relatively high unemployment rate of younger engineers reflects that
- Senior engineers can and do pick up AI workflows in ways that boost team productivity
- Most resilient companies won’t over-hire juniors but they also have a talent pipeline that is more selective now
- When you are a fresh graduate who picked CS as their major because you saw it seemed like a good choice in 2021 during the height of the COVID-induced tech boom, you become part of the oversupply problem
Amazing comment and totally agree with most of the above! Only thing for me: I'm not convinced we have a real oversupply problem.
Every tech startup/company I know is still rabidly hiring for good talent. They can't fill skilled roles fast enough. The difference is that many of them are overlooking juniors because 1.) they don't have "junior level" work for them to do immediately and 2.) are underestimating how quickly AI enables juniors to become seniors.
I think it's also important to maintain context - it's totally normal for lots of people to get weeded out at the entry level! Like lots of aspiring investment bankers, consultants, marketers, designers, etc. just don't make it for lots of legitimate reasons. Engineering has just stopped being a weird anomaly where anyone who wanted a job could find one.
That’s a great call out on the weed-out phase. Let’s see how it plays out :) I, for one, welcome our new AI overlords