Who Killed The Junior Developer?

There are plenty of junior developers, but not many jobs for them

A few months ago I attended an event for women in tech. A lot of the attendees were new developers, graduates from code schools or computer science programs. Almost everyone told me they were having trouble getting their first job.

I was lucky. My first “real” job out of college was “Junior Application developer” at Columbia University in 2010. These days it’s a rare day to find even a job posting for a junior developer position. People who advertise these positions say they are inundated with resumes. But on the senior level companies complain they can’t find good developers.

Gee, I wonder why?

I’m not really sure the exact economics of this, because I don’t run these companies. But I know what companies have told me: “we don’t hire junior developers because we can’t afford to have our senior developers mentor them.” I’ve seen the rates for senior developers because I am one and I had project managers that had me allocate time for budgeting purposes. I know the rate is anywhere from $190-$300 an hour. That’s what companies believe they are losing on junior devs.

I don’t believe that because no senior developer is working a full day on that $300 an hour rate. Also their hand wringing about the costs seems like crocodile…