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I'm a little worried you're never going to find a junior developer that's satisfactory enough to qualify for what you want, explicitly because you're looking fo

I'm a little worried you're never going to find a junior developer that's satisfactory enough to qualify for what you want, explicitly because you're looking for a senior developer at junior developer pay. Junior developers need to be given time to make mistakes and learn. I know a senior developer might seem too expensive for your budget, but hiring a junior developer might ultimately cost more for your project over time. The time that they're going to take to have to ramp up and learn everything is probably going to eat into the time to deliver any sort of product. What I'm saying is that a junior developer is a time and money investment, and sometimes it just pays to hire a senior developer/contractor and have them get the project out. Anyway... what I would look for in a junior developer isn't whether or not they're amazing at data structures etc. I could really give a rats ass as to whether or not they're able to do something like Codility. What I need to see is that they know at least some basics on how to code, and that they have the aptitude and motivation to learn. The two most important qualities to me in a software developer is the ability to communicate and the ability to learn. Why is communication necessary, particularly in a junior developer? I need to know that they're willing to swallow their egos and come to someone for help. It's the fastest way to learn. Hell, I feel like I learned much faster because I was able to swallow my pride and ask someone with seniority for help. It didn't mean that I would run to them at the first sign of a struggle, but if I was burning most of my day doing something that I felt wasn't really going to teach me much, but was causing me to struggle with something - I would go and ask someone senior for help.

noir_lord 9y ago
Ability to communicate and ability to think. That's the core of what I look for in any (junior) developer. Its the skeleton on which everything else hangs. Its not the only qualities but the most important ones.
- Code_Blizzard 9y ago
  I can do those, but still learning how to program. Any recommendations on job searches?
le-mark 9y ago
Learn and communicate, I don't think anyone would argue with that, but how do you judge that from talking to someone, reading their resume, or viewing their portfolio? That's the question. For a junior developer these are some things I look for: I want to see evidence they are familiar with the tools; since I hire for enterprise Java that is: eclipse (or other ide), maven, and git. I don't expect them to know much, just evidence they've used them and are familiar with some the concepts they mask (i.e. the class path) or why they're important (ie version control). I ask them to tell me about a project they've done and the data structures they used, then drill down just enough to see if they understand why they used them, and how they're implemented. Depending on the work, I'll drill down into data structures a bit more, but otherwise, I don't focus on anything but familiarity with the basics. If they're straight out of school I ask them what they're favorite CS class was. One of my favorites is to ask about a tricky bug they've solved recently. This one either gets people talking, or they don't have anything. If they don't have anything, I'll probe, but if a candidate can't talk about this it's a strong signal to not hire (imo). As an exampe, I interviewed a self taught guy one time, very green. He had written a few simple android apps, but had used notepad and the command line, so didn't know anything about Eclipse. I asked him about any datastructures he'd used in his apps and why. He was at a loss, and had only used arrays apparently. The guy had some positives; he had shipped two apps, which is something, working with primitive tools. But he also hadn't taught himself the "standard" tools, which we all do to a point. When it comes to someone that green, I just don't have the time to train them. I once worked with an architect who was really good at training green developers, and his management gave him a funnel. They developed a really great (and cheap) team. Most of their devs stayed long term, but some got training and left after 1-2 years.

noir_lord 9y ago

Ability to communicate and ability to think. That's the core of what I look for in any (junior) developer. Its the skeleton on which everything else hangs. Its not the only qualities but the most important ones.

Code_Blizzard 9y ago
I can do those, but still learning how to program. Any recommendations on job searches?

le-mark 9y ago

Learn and communicate, I don't think anyone would argue with that, but how do you judge that from talking to someone, reading their resume, or viewing their portfolio? That's the question. For a junior developer these are some things I look for: I want to see evidence they are familiar with the tools; since I hire for enterprise Java that is: eclipse (or other ide), maven, and git. I don't expect them to know much, just evidence they've used them and are familiar with some the concepts they mask (i.e. the class path) or why they're important (ie version control). I ask them to tell me about a project they've done and the data structures they used, then drill down just enough to see if they understand why they used them, and how they're implemented. Depending on the work, I'll drill down into data structures a bit more, but otherwise, I don't focus on anything but familiarity with the basics. If they're straight out of school I ask them what they're favorite CS class was. One of my favorites is to ask about a tricky bug they've solved recently. This one either gets people talking, or they don't have anything. If they don't have anything, I'll probe, but if a candidate can't talk about this it's a strong signal to not hire (imo). As an exampe, I interviewed a self taught guy one time, very green. He had written a few simple android apps, but had used notepad and the command line, so didn't know anything about Eclipse. I asked him about any datastructures he'd used in his apps and why. He was at a loss, and had only used arrays apparently. The guy had some positives; he had shipped two apps, which is something, working with primitive tools. But he also hadn't taught himself the "standard" tools, which we all do to a point. When it comes to someone that green, I just don't have the time to train them. I once worked with an architect who was really good at training green developers, and his management gave him a funnel. They developed a really great (and cheap) team. Most of their devs stayed long term, but some got training and left after 1-2 years.