[alistairSH]

We have a floor full of interns right now. Our India and Mexico offices do as well. Some of them will probably be offered full-time roles.

I hired a junior engineering a few years ago. And have done every few years for about a decade.

I work at a mid-size, PE-owned company that's been around for 50+ years, that operates in the enterprise SaaS space. Junior roles aren't going anywhere. But, the expectations of those junior hires will change (as they have evolved since I was junior myself, way back in the 90s).

Will AI change how we hire and retain talent? Of course.

[zihotki]

We, at a large Dutch bank, also do have 20+ interns but 0 positions for them in IT department. Leadership is projecting that if you do well in internship then you'll be hired. But no interns were hired in last 2 years...

[stalfosknight]

That is a great example of the kind of bullshit I'm talking about.

How exactly are people supposed to reach a senior level if they aren't allowed to be junior developers first?

[spacemadness]

People have been asking the executive class this for a long while now: why don’t you care about training? Their response has ever been silence or threats or that’s what school is for. Do it on your own time, after the 50+ hours we demand from you. Some places get it and had a proper pipeline to train. A vast majority do not. And now they give us this. Great bunch of folks.

[coolThingsFirst]

Basically the idea is become a senior at your own expense. Work for years without pay and only then get a job if and only if the new AI models by that time hasn't made mid or senior level engineers redundant as well.

[stalfosknight]

…but how?

If no one will employ you to formally give you a verifiable senior title, how exactly is that supposed to happen?

[coolThingsFirst]

By working for free.

That's basically what this field is turning into.

[stalfosknight]

Unpaid 20-something interns fresh out of college are not quite the same thing as what I am referring to when I say junior software developer.

[alistairSH]

We pay our interns, as required by local law.

[spacemadness]

Key phrase is you hired them a few years ago. That’s not helpful in the discussion now.

Edit: Missed this was in response to “extinct for a long time” which makes more sense. It is true that it is an entirely different world than three years ago.