It's time to stop being afraid of the Junes

The author reads the thoughts of large companies

Hi all! I noticed that recently there have been a lot of articles criticizing novice developers, and I would like to express my opinion in their defense. I don't see anything wrong with having a novice specialist on the team. After all, it’s like a blank sheet of paper that you can fill with any ideas and then get the results you need.

What is meant by June?

In my opinion, there is often confusion between the terms “junior” and “trainee”. In my opinion, a junior is a minimal combat unit that can already write code independently in accordance with the established standards of the team. That is, a junior is a person who is fluent in his programming language and has experience working with it for at least six months. Coding experience can be personal projects or some internships.

Among the weaknesses of juniors, I would highlight the lack of “observation” and real experience, which makes it difficult to propose new ideas and forces them to simply follow the instructions of senior colleagues. Also, often their soft skills are not sufficiently developed, and they do not always understand how to resolve conflict situations between departments or developers. In such cases, help and problem solving most often falls on senior colleagues.

Therefore, I believe that most of the work of a junior depends on the quality of the processes in the department and the professionalism of the team itself. If there are well-described tasks, as well as specific scenarios of “how to fill out an application for…” and a description of the team’s code style, then the junior will be able to do his job to the fullest.

Who is this intern of yours?

Now let's define what an intern is. The trainee is the embryonic life form from which the jun must emerge. This will probably be a course graduate who has mastered the entire program on average, but may have difficulty writing a loop to iterate through elements in an array. Guiding actions from senior colleagues alone are not enough for him; he needs some time to get used to the new tool.

Often graduates of courses at the trainee level or below strive to take the position of a junior, and preferably with a middle salary. Because of this, one may get the impression that the Junes are not “combat units” capable of being useful. This is the same thing if you hire an intern for the position of senior and wonder which seniors are “stupid” and in general you need to immediately look for technical leads.

Therefore, as an intern, you need to either educate yourself or look for a mentor or internship. After all, to start working, you need to achieve at least a minimum professional level.

Real developer work

In real work, when applying for a job, any developer, regardless of skill level, needs time to immerse himself in the project. Therefore, you should not blame juniors for the fact that they cannot immediately solve all the problems with the “super” legacy the next day after being hired, because probably no one can handle this.

Also among mid-level developers there may be specialists with varying degrees of professional training. Teams sometimes have developers that I call “zombies.” They have long stopped developing professionally, limiting themselves to performing day-to-day tasks on outdated projects, but they are kept on the team simply because they have been working there for a long time.

And here it is even more profitable to consider hiring a junior instead of this employee and introducing the necessary ideas and values into him. Our “zombies” are already difficult to change, they have established relationships with management, and it is better not to touch them, but the junior can be made a more effective member of the team. By demonstrating and explaining that the core values are responsibility, continuous learning, and a commitment to quality work, you can inspire growth and development by leading by example.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I want to emphasize that juniors are able to do their job effectively and gradually grow to the level corresponding to the average developer. It is important not to shift team problems or unsuccessful tasks onto them and not to assert that “they can’t figure it out on their own.” With the right approach and mentorship, aspiring professionals can become valuable assets to the company and successfully handle their tasks.

Thank you for your attention!