3 ms·

One reason I see especially in larger companies that there is specific hiring headcount allocated. Always it doesn’t specify if the allocation is for junior/mid

by enra 9y ago

One reason I see especially in larger companies that there is specific hiring headcount allocated. Always it doesn’t specify if the allocation is for junior/mid/senior level. So to optimize your team’s output, you tend to look for the mid/senior and not even consider junior people.

curun1r 9y ago
This. If more managers were given a budget rather than a headcount, they'd hire more juniors. At my last managing gig, I was the only manager at my level to hire junior devs. I prefer a little mentoring/supervision to the "too many chiefs" problem. And juniors have fewer bad habits I need to break, so I can more easily mold them into the kind of developer I want. Also, junior devs are much more willing to take the crap tasks that seniors find less challenging/interesting. I can stick a fresh college grad on bug duty and they'll often churn through them faster than the senior devs. The raw horsepower of some young devs is damn impressive just as long as you keep them pointed in the right direction. But I've also found that mentoring is a rewarding part of the job and now that I manage, I really enjoy mentoring mentors. Helping turn great experienced devs into great teachers helps take them to the next level and I've had guys that didn't want to do anything but write code thank me for pushing them to mentor. So yeah...lots of companies give their managers perverse incentives and allow them to be lazy. But if you're conscientious and put a plan in place, mixing in around 30-40% juniors can be cheaper, more productive and better for everyone involved. It's just harder and most managers are more interested in playing politics to increase the size of their fiefdom than they are in actually shipping software and thinking about their reports' careers.

3 ms·

One reason I see especially in larger companies that there is specific hiring headcount allocated. Always it doesn’t specify if the allocation is for junior/mid

by enra 9y ago

curun1r 9y ago
This. If more managers were given a budget rather than a headcount, they'd hire more juniors. At my last managing gig, I was the only manager at my level to hire junior devs. I prefer a little mentoring/supervision to the "too many chiefs" problem. And juniors have fewer bad habits I need to break, so I can more easily mold them into the kind of developer I want. Also, junior devs are much more willing to take the crap tasks that seniors find less challenging/interesting. I can stick a fresh college grad on bug duty and they'll often churn through them faster than the senior devs. The raw horsepower of some young devs is damn impressive just as long as you keep them pointed in the right direction. But I've also found that mentoring is a rewarding part of the job and now that I manage, I really enjoy mentoring mentors. Helping turn great experienced devs into great teachers helps take them to the next level and I've had guys that didn't want to do anything but write code thank me for pushing them to mentor. So yeah...lots of companies give their managers perverse incentives and allow them to be lazy. But if you're conscientious and put a plan in place, mixing in around 30-40% juniors can be cheaper, more productive and better for everyone involved. It's just harder and most managers are more interested in playing politics to increase the size of their fiefdom than they are in actually shipping software and thinking about their reports' careers.