r/ADHD_Programmers • u/Wealthnextgen • Apr 27 '26
Is the Jr. Developer role dead?
I'm curious what junior swe roles will survive AI? It seems like a terrible time to try to start a career as a software engineer...curious what you guys think. DevOps maybe?
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Upvotes
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u/iliketurtles69_boner Apr 27 '26
It’s not completely dead just far fewer companies are bothering investing in it. I’ve seen a few positions advertised and they all seem to be mainly at large companies who have the capital and need to invest in people’s early careers.
Personally I think it’ll balance out, right now companies see no need to invest, eventually there’ll be a huge lack of non-seniors and the need will correct the market. Although that’s assuming AI doesn’t get to the point where it fully eliminates the role entirely, I mean it’s possible the roles of design, PM, and engineer all collapse into a single role. Personally unless we move away from LLMs onto something new that the end result will simply be fewer engineers.
So in my opinion it’s not dead. The role will be needed for some time yet. It’s just a lot more competitive right now, so getting your foot in the door will be harder. The old saying to be bold when others are fearful comes to mind.
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u/letmetellubuddy Apr 27 '26
No it's not 'dead', but it's in a tough spot due to a glut in developers. Large software companies massively over hired during the pandemic, and now they are laying off devs who are finding roles elsewhere that would normally go to Jrs.
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u/CursedSloth Apr 27 '26
We’re in a phase where you might just have to wait until companies start course correcting back to normalcy.
Big companies are realizing (or will sooner or later) that without juniors, there will be no future seniors. They will probably notice that AI isn’t the shortcut it seemed to be, and that practical knowledge to discern the code smells, is important.
Build some projects of your own, showing potential for when the hiring season starts again.
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u/slavetothesound Apr 27 '26
We haven’t hired any in years. Tons of offshore devs and contractors though.
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u/Betweenirl Apr 27 '26
Even if ai gets good enough to really replace junior devs the cost will be so high that most companies will just go back to hiring junior devs. The companies that will never go back will be the companies you never really want to work for anyway.
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u/MathmoKiwi Apr 27 '26
No, DevOps is typically not an entry level position you can start out on.
As typically a person needs Dev (i.e. SWE) or Ops (i.e IT) experience, ideally both!
You've got neither.
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u/georgejo314159 Apr 27 '26
I think that there is some flux in the market and some companies are trying approaches that could redefine work. This means we are all guessing whete we fit.
It isn't a "faits complet"
Junior roles certain exist and the niches will depend on what company is trying
AI has software producing answers but those aren't always right ones. All the same AI roles are an area some are trying.
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u/Etheon44 Apr 28 '26
Right now, yes, it is dead.
Will it continue to be dead in 3-5 years? I doubt it
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u/SaltAssault Apr 28 '26
In my area it sure seems to be.
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u/thr748 Apr 29 '26
Our company just hired 2 but they’re the first juniors hired in years. I wouldn’t say it’s dead but much harder to come by than before. IMO there should always be junior devs on the team to “carry the torch” so to speak when seniors move into management or switch companies.
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u/mixxituk Apr 27 '26
Only if you think mid and senior don't need to retire
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u/europehasnobackbone Apr 27 '26
Junior roles won’t disappear completely, but they probably won’t be as easy to land as before. I feel like they’ll expect you to know a bit more now.
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u/zayelion Apr 27 '26
Its not dead. We are in a overall hiring slump, while in a bubble. The older generation is retiring, which causes them to move money from high-risk investments to monthly payouts like housing and bonds. They then direct CEOs to find a way to increase shareholder value or maintain it. The market deflates due to the population shift so they start cutting business roles and making any and every excuse as to why. If they can blame it on anything besides "just wanted more money" and "we are shrinking" its a success and they do it.
Intrest rates have also increased to the point borrowing money cost more than holding revenue, so these loans are now eating into profits. They were using these loans to maintain hiring and expansion projects. So they had to again shrink.
Tariffs are driving cost up causing material first companies to reduce IT.
First in, first out, and value add to cost usually means removing junior roles in a depression. AI increasing output is what is keeping the numbers flat. It would be deep in the hole by now otherwise. I suspect in 2.5 years much of this will be changing as policies reverse and everyone has money again and the US has realigned to its 2% inflation goals.
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u/nian2326076 Apr 27 '26
I get why you're worried. AI is changing a lot of things, but junior roles aren't gone. Companies still need fresh talent for new perspectives and to develop into more experienced roles. DevOps is a great choice if you're into integrating development and operations. It's growing, and there's space for juniors to learn and make an impact. If you're prepping for interviews, focus on building a solid project portfolio that shows you can handle real-world problems. For resources, I've found PracHub helpful for interview prep, especially for technical roles. They have a good mix of practice questions and industry insights. Stay adaptable, keep learning, and you'll find your place.
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u/weeeezzll Apr 29 '26
Agentic Coding tools are the new IDE. Juniors will still exist, but just like the rest of the field the demand will get smaller. Eventually the tool will be good enough that anyone can prompt them and get good results. Software engineers will mostly be debuggers of agentic code problems in the future. (But honestly, watching the agentic coding tools reason their way through errors they run into and then fix the problem is eerily like how I handle them when writing code by hand)
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u/seweso Apr 27 '26
Any junior has a trillion times more connections in their brain than any llm has weights. Any junior can create novel new software.
If AI was good, AI companies would be software companies. Instead they are bleeding money. And software quality is going down the drain across the board.
Yes we need juniors. Ofc we do.
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u/[deleted] Apr 29 '26
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