If every company trained juniors, only for them to jump ship in two years, there’d be a pool of trained juniors to hire from.
I mean… That’s only if they trained juniors. Juniors have an incredibly hard time getting their first job in programming. Each company is incentivized to snipe juniors from everywhere else instead of train their own.
Beyond that, there’s work that is better suited to more junior employees because it’s literally a waste of the senior employees’ skills.
As a staff software eng - nothing is beneath me. There are some things that only I can do (in theory) but in practice I do everything from minor copy changes to architecting new services. If I need to do something I’m happy to do it.
It’s a lost opportunity when you, a staff engineer, spend your time doing something that a junior engineer could do – instead of doing a task a junior engineer can’t do.
I think it’s important for seniors to be in the trenches.
I’d expect a senior to be doing “junior” work even if juniors were available to take it on.
It’s not all about efficiency: it’s about keeping grounded and in touch with the ongoing state of the code base. Which I’d argue you can’t get just from reviewing PRs.
I can see what you mean as far as false economies go for the company but in order to have a task fully scoped for a junior to do you need significant amounts of managerial and engineering time spent grooming tickets, updating AC, explicitly enumerating changes… All of which could be cut through by more senior devs that handle ambiguity better.
Its hard. I’d rather have juniors to delegate to, sure. But I’d most like to have juniors to train. Even if they didn’t do anything useful for 6 months.
It wasn’t my intention to put words in your mouth. Everything I’ve said has been an honest reflection of my experience in corporate programming and represents the things I hear managers saying about team composition and division of labor. I’m in meetings with members of the c-suite talking about these things specifically.
I get you don’t think it makes sense for a corporation to do. I’m trying to say regardless of that - the executives are acting in what they see as very rational self interest.
I mean… That’s only if they trained juniors. Juniors have an incredibly hard time getting their first job in programming. Each company is incentivized to snipe juniors from everywhere else instead of train their own.
As a staff software eng - nothing is beneath me. There are some things that only I can do (in theory) but in practice I do everything from minor copy changes to architecting new services. If I need to do something I’m happy to do it.
No one said anything is beneath senior employees.
It’s a lost opportunity when you, a staff engineer, spend your time doing something that a junior engineer could do – instead of doing a task a junior engineer can’t do.
I think it’s important for seniors to be in the trenches.
I’d expect a senior to be doing “junior” work even if juniors were available to take it on.
It’s not all about efficiency: it’s about keeping grounded and in touch with the ongoing state of the code base. Which I’d argue you can’t get just from reviewing PRs.
I can see what you mean as far as false economies go for the company but in order to have a task fully scoped for a junior to do you need significant amounts of managerial and engineering time spent grooming tickets, updating AC, explicitly enumerating changes… All of which could be cut through by more senior devs that handle ambiguity better.
Its hard. I’d rather have juniors to delegate to, sure. But I’d most like to have juniors to train. Even if they didn’t do anything useful for 6 months.
Again, you’re putting words in my mouth. I’m done engaging with you as I don’t think you’re conversing in good faith.
It wasn’t my intention to put words in your mouth. Everything I’ve said has been an honest reflection of my experience in corporate programming and represents the things I hear managers saying about team composition and division of labor. I’m in meetings with members of the c-suite talking about these things specifically.
I get you don’t think it makes sense for a corporation to do. I’m trying to say regardless of that - the executives are acting in what they see as very rational self interest.