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A lot of unorganized thoughts: - I really didn't like that seniority equates to creating value in this article. I knew junior engineers who could have code cir

A lot of unorganized thoughts: - I really didn't like that seniority equates to creating value in this article. I knew junior engineers who could have code circles around way more senior. - Comparing Bootcamps with CS degree is also leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Bootcamp is usually much shorter and very narrow. CS is longer and much broader. Software engineering became complicated enough to require some breadth (even junior engineers need to have some understand of SDLC, source control, language, main framework and couple of other things). - On another hand, I agree, everybody wants senior people, because senior (+good) engineers create way more value than junior (and unproven). - I think for junior engineers who don't come from the top schools it would be hard to get into a pipeline of hotshot companies. However, why do we concentrate on FAANG as a first employment opportunity? The first company where I worked had 5 people and a dog and a tiny salary. It didn't stop me from finding the next company and gradually getting to a decent place. - If I was in junior engineer shoes, I would try to find absolutely non-glamour company (big old consulting company, something small and local, government, etc, and apply there). Get a couple of years of experience and after, expand the search to include better companies. Also, I would challenge the core premise of this article, looking for Junior Software engineer, I got around 700 open positions and searching for senior, I got about 900.

arnvald 5y ago
> I knew junior engineers who could have code circles around way more senior That's a good point, there's a lot of nuance to that, but when I hire junior devs I still think of them as an investment, where for the first X months I'll spend more time training them than I would spend doing all tasks that they take > However, why do we concentrate on FAANG as a first employment opportunity? I don't think I made this article FAANG-specific, in fact I've spent majority of my career in small companies and I always tell entry-level candidates to reach out directly to small companies because they might be open to hiring even if they don't advertise it > looking for Junior Software engineer, I got around 700 open positions and searching for senior, I got about 900 Yeah, I tried a few searches like that too, and I was wondering why people find it so hard to land interviews if there's so many junior positions. So I started looking into that, I checked the first 100 or so results and a lot of them required 1-2y of professional experience, meaning the number of entry-level roles is smaller. > Comparing Bootcamps with CS degree is also leaves a bad taste in my mouth Yeah, that's a generalization on my side, of course CS grads will have much easier time finding their first job, but unless they come from a top school they still might have problems getting interviews these days. And with the higher demand for developers in general, I would imagine that the number of entry-level opportunities should be much higher, and it should be easy for both CS-grads and other people to land interviews, but it's not happening.

arnvald 5y ago

> I knew junior engineers who could have code circles around way more senior That's a good point, there's a lot of nuance to that, but when I hire junior devs I still think of them as an investment, where for the first X months I'll spend more time training them than I would spend doing all tasks that they take > However, why do we concentrate on FAANG as a first employment opportunity? I don't think I made this article FAANG-specific, in fact I've spent majority of my career in small companies and I always tell entry-level candidates to reach out directly to small companies because they might be open to hiring even if they don't advertise it > looking for Junior Software engineer, I got around 700 open positions and searching for senior, I got about 900 Yeah, I tried a few searches like that too, and I was wondering why people find it so hard to land interviews if there's so many junior positions. So I started looking into that, I checked the first 100 or so results and a lot of them required 1-2y of professional experience, meaning the number of entry-level roles is smaller. > Comparing Bootcamps with CS degree is also leaves a bad taste in my mouth Yeah, that's a generalization on my side, of course CS grads will have much easier time finding their first job, but unless they come from a top school they still might have problems getting interviews these days. And with the higher demand for developers in general, I would imagine that the number of entry-level opportunities should be much higher, and it should be easy for both CS-grads and other people to land interviews, but it's not happening.