The magnitude of risk depends to a large degree on the employer. > someone with essentially no way to show they can actually do the work and manage themselves.

The magnitude of risk depends to a large degree on the employer. > someone with essentially no way to show they can actually do the work and manage themselves. Two quick follow up points on that (the second point is more important)... 1. Junior devs graduating from places like this and Lambda School will have spent months learning, collaborating and working remotely as part of their course. I wouldn't say that counts as proof that they can do the work per se, but it's definitely proof that - if they can do they work - they can do it remotely. 2. You have the same challenges with non-remote hires as well... What part of your hiring/onboarding/management process requires you to be able to physically touch the junior dev in question? BTW I absolutely don't think all companies should hire remote. And I don't think all junior devs would be good remote hires. Far from it. But there are enough successful companies out there hiring remote junior devs to prove that it is possible. So when someone says they would never hire a remote junior dev, it just seems silly to me to pretend that's anything more than a company masking serious hiring, training or culture problems which remote work would expose...