The Crisis in Tech's Obsession with Junior Talent

Maybe the author should be more specific because in the job searches I have done of late, my target companies almost never have junior positions open. Admitted, I do more niche stuff, but if you look for example at how NVIDIA hires, what counts as a junior there is a PhD with 3 conference papers, opensource contributions and a prior internship.

&gt; the kind who could debug kernel panics<p>But we don&#x27;t need a kernel team and we can get by without a support contract (which would cost more than a gray beard).<p>Tech is more willing to pay for senior talent for their social engineering skills to organize junior devs to solve business problems.

My impression has been the opposite. Companies are very reluctant to hire nearly junior anything. So, they kneecap their top, senior developers and pull up the ladder for junior talent. But they are more than eager to pay mid-level developers junior pay.

Just give me 5 good guys, young or old, ideally a mixture so I can grow some talent organically. Also note, &quot;resource&quot; is not the same as &quot;talent&quot;.

I&#x27;m pretty sure part of the reason is younger people are easier to manipulate and slap around without consequences.

Freedium bypass paywall link - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;freedium.cfd&#x2F;https:&#x2F;&#x2F;medium.com&#x2F;mr-plan-publication&#x2F;8-out-of-10-senior-engineers-feel-undervalued-the-hidden-crisis-in-techs-obsession-with-junior-fa9cc62b1e8e" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;freedium.cfd&#x2F;https:&#x2F;&#x2F;medium.com&#x2F;mr-plan-publication&#x2F;...</a>

Maybe you don’t need an architect when quality doesn’t matter and everyone is shipping mvps

Unfortunately I couldn&#x27;t read past the first two paragraphs as it was a member only story.

&gt; <i>Juniors handle feature work; seniors own system health and complex refactors</i><p>I&#x27;m visualizing &quot;juniors&quot; running around greenfield, flinging their poo everywhere, like druggie nepo babies (then RDD, and run away). Whilst tireless &quot;seniors&quot; have to run around cleaning up totally unnecessary shitshows, with stress and misery.<p>How about: Stop prioritizing headcount quantity over quality, and stop focusing on reducing your unit cost of that headcount. Instead, build good, small teams, of capable and aligned people, who you can trust to do full-lifecycle well, and treat them well, so that they remain aligned and retained.