IT job market: no juniors ➡️ no seniors!

I see a very concerning “trend” in IT jobs these days and I predict that there will be a lot of complaining in 3–7 years. And all of this is self-caused…

Both my observations and experts from the industry (bootcamp providers, educators, hiring managers, etc.) confirm that, currently, there are next to no entry-level or junior positions to be had in IT, engineering, data and related fields.

Not that these positions were ever ample to begin with… but what we see now is such a short-term approach…

One would think that in times of recession people tend to hire the “cheaper” option (pardon this vocabulary), i. e. working students, interns, juniors. But no, most companies opt for the seemingly “safe bet”.

They all want seniors. Because they think that they need less enablement to be performant. To a certain degree that is true. But even statistically not that many people entered IT in the last 20 years. So there are not that many seniors or leads with a LOT of experience out there.

I see it coming: in 3–7 years people in this industry will be moaning and complaining that seniors are hard to hire, have expectations and come with a hefty price. Not that they shouldn’t come with expectations, but how will we stay innovative if there is a lack of inflow of up and coming talent?

The juniors of today are the seniors of tomorrow. So please, dear hiring managers, do yourself a favor: create junior positions. Your seniors will grow in mentoring and you have your next group of seniors lined up already. Think long-term, hire anti-cyclically.

Can you imagine how loyal people are who had a hard time getting their start and you are the one who provides that for them? Marvelous, I’ve seen it.

And if you are worried about that time and resource investment… talk to experts who have designed such offers. It is hard work, yes, but once you have done it you can releverage it. And it’s more than worth it. It pays off big time.