Open Letter: Why Should We Hire Junior Developers?

Since my first job as a web developer, I've seen dozens of companies waste precious time flatly refusing to hire a junior developer, all while trying to recruit a five-legged sheep.

Because yes, finding a seasoned fullstack web developer, autonomous on tech stacks a mile long, with 5 years of experience and not too demanding, isn't easy...

Many companies see hiring a junior as a loss of productivity for the company, they'll have to train them, it will slow down the teams, and quite often recruitment happens right when reinforcement is already needed. So they look for someone who's operational right away.

Yet the role of a company is to invest time and money in tools and skills in order to create value, so why not go all in? What I'm going to explain to you today is that creating a junior developer position is both a good investment and a real long-term saving.

1 - Loyalty

In HR, turnover is costly. Seeing an employee resign after a few months means losing their skills, their experience on past projects, and above all having to reinvest time and money in recruitment.

And unfortunately, sometimes all it takes is a nice salary offer and an attractive project to make a developer switch sides.

But when you choose to invest in a junior profile, you're not just offering them a job. You're offering them their first job as a developer, you're giving them the chance to get their first experience, you're allowing them to finally practice the job of their dreams.

For someone in career reconversion, you're even showing them the long-awaited sign that they were right to change paths, that they didn't make all those efforts for nothing, and that their life is going to change starting now.

That's something that isn't forgotten. It's what gives rise to incredible loyalty between the developer and the company, which will be the foundation of a great adventure, and above all real motivation and a desire to do well!

2 - The synergy of skills

What better way to find a profile that matches perfectly the skills you're looking for than to grow a junior developer's skills yourself?

This way you avoid all the ego problems that push certain developers to do everything to promote their favorite technology.

The energy and eagerness to learn of a junior will allow you to train them on the exact skills you need while allowing them to thrive!

Sometimes all it takes is adding a new recruit to support an experienced developer on a project so that the latter can delegate the right tasks and help them grow their skills.

Remember that a task that seems repetitive to a developer can be very educational and motivating for a junior who has never had the chance to work on this type of project!

3 - Timing

The most common mistake is waiting to land a new project before hiring someone for it, because that's exactly the moment when the developer will have the opportunity to negotiate their starting salary, and due to lack of time you'll have to accept it.

A salary increase for a developer hired under urgency has no value for the company, unlike the compensation for a junior, which will be transformed into skill development.

Much more modest salaries allow you to anticipate your hiring and take the time to train these new developers!

4 - The talent pool

When the problem isn't the urgency of hiring, it's often the talent pool that's the issue.

Unlike companies located in the biggest cities, finding a candidate with the desired experience in the technologies you're looking for quickly becomes a headache in "the provinces".

So companies try to poach developers from those big cities, and pay the price for it, and what a price! All the more so since the risk of turnover is even higher when the person hired arrives in a city they don't know.

Yet all over France, even in smaller cities, there are coding schools, graduating entire cohorts every year, sometimes forced to move against their will just to find work...

5 - The culture of mentorship

Establishing an internal culture of mentorship to help new employees grow their skills is a real asset for company culture.

Motivating your teams to share their knowledge and taking the time to do so completely changes how employees experience their time at the company.

It builds patience, indulgence, altruism, and creates a positive and motivating atmosphere for everyone!

I hope this open letter can help move things forward, and see you soon on the blog!