Why are we afraid of the Junes?

In 1999, when I was in first grade, all my friends dreamed of becoming businessmen. It seemed to me then that my friends were dreaming somewhere in the wrong direction, because I wanted to become a killer. This funny memory made me think that often people’s aspirations are dictated not by pompous ideas, but by banal demand in a specific period of time.

Despite the rapid growth of the IT industry, I am increasingly faced with a terrible attitude towards people who want to work in IT. Under almost every material for beginners you can find dozens of negative comments. For a long time I could not understand why experienced specialists despise “new blood,” until one day I suggested that it was a matter of fear.

To confirm or refute my guess, I turned to my colleagues with a request to explain why they hate the Junes. And what I heard amazed me.

Vladimir, Senior Frontend Developer

“There is no greater curse than the intern you were given as a condition of PR (approx. Performance Review). Nothing personal, everyone was young, but conditions have changed.

When a newbie is assigned to a project, he is immediately given tasks. Even an experienced developer needs time to understand the code, but what to expect from a trainee?! He begins to become stupid, which is why he constantly comes to you for help and distracts you. Think about it yourself: it takes half an hour to an hour to explain, then the same amount of time to correct errors and, if you’re lucky, merge branches without conflicts. Approximately 20-25% of working time is scrap! Who will like it?

Olga, HR-manager

“The courses produce juniors who then don’t take on real projects, which means they don’t benefit the company. The funny thing is that these tubes are promised that everyone will receive a salary of 120k. And they believe it, guess what?

But there are also problematic specimens. If previously it was possible to recognize a beginner by typical projects on GitHub, now they are taught to polish their resume, use their experience, steal other people’s code and memorize answers. I fell for similar comrades several times. I thought that I was sending middle people to technical services, but then it turned out that the dudes weren’t cut out to be interns either.”

Maxim, Middle Flutter Developer

“Are you asking why? Junes are disrupting the market! Many are willing to work for food or pay extra for mentoring just to get into IT. This is precisely why our salaries are falling.

The employer is not a fool, so he begins to manipulate: “I have a line outside the door for your place, what is the salary increase?” Have you been looking at vacancies lately? In Moscow they are already offering 60k. And this is for the middle! How can you live on this money when you have a family and a mortgage? At this rate, we'll be heading to the factory soon! You will see!”

Sergey, Chief technical officer

“Downtime in the company averages 15%. Both beginners and experienced guys get into it. For example, when a customer abruptly leaves or cuts costs on the team.

We can’t keep people with self-tasks for long. As a rule, we try to find a project within a month or two. Middles and seniors don’t sit idle for a long time, but with juniors it’s more difficult: selling them to a project is a task with an asterisk. In some cases, we are forced to part ways after 1–2 months of work. Of course, we try to be friends, but there are also unpleasant situations. One newcomer, who worked for us for six months, wrote to me in a personal message for another three months. He complained, threatened, asked to come back.”

Analyzing the answers of my respondents, I came to the conclusion that negativity towards newcomers exists, and it is accompanied by various feelings: mistrust, contempt, fatigue and disappointment. Everyone has different reasons, but still it’s not fear.

In conclusion, I want to point out that I have no complaints about the juniors. We all started at some point and all experienced difficulties in our first job. Therefore, I will allow myself the role of Leopold the cat and say: “Guys, let’s live together.”

PS If the article didn’t scare you, I invite you to my channel “Mom, I’m a IT specialist”. There I give advice to beginners, create training programs and tell other people's stories.