[ANarrativeApe]

This makes complete sense in an environment where people transition from noob to senior engineer within the same company.

It makes less sense in an era when tenure is better measured in months than years.

It makes even less sense in an era of LLMs.

One area where it might be relevant is the military. People are more likely to stay for longer (unvalidated assumption) and the same personnel jacket follows them if they are transferred.

It might also be thought of as a guide as to when to jump ship. If you have managed to get yourself categorized as a C, then leave. Start fresh somewhere else, take the learning with you, and discover if you have what it takes to make it as an A or B.

[znkr]

> It makes even less sense in an era of LLMs.

I would argue that out makes even more sense in the era of LLMs. LLM shaped tasks are tasks that we would hand out to junior engineers. Now, I can implement one of these tasks in 1hr instead of waiting for a junior engineer to finish this in 1-3 days. This means the equation for investing in junior engineers has shifted towards disfavoring investment.

[MikeNotThePope]

This is my own personal experience as a senior engineer.

I hired my first ever intern for myself this past week for a personal. Rather than expecting someone who is experienced to knock out tasks or whatever & try to justify the expense, Intern and I just check in once a day about whatever feels like most important, and each do our thing. We chat as needed. I told Intern we’ll work on whatever, just making sure that they will have something tangible and targeted to show at the end of the summer. No ticket tracking or Slack or anything. Just texting, video chats, and the occasional email. I pay someone to listen to me rant long enough to get to the point, giving me focus that’s hard to find on my own, intern works on targeted things for a day at a time, and we’re just plodding along. It’s great and I find the process to be extremely refreshing.

When I’m trying to brainstorm with Claude Code or pick-an-AI-tool, I find the process frustrating and draining. The results I get from trying to do everything myself with a robo-junior are mediocre and uninspiring.

I didn’t even interview intern. I just reached out directly on LinkedIn and offered a summer internship. I figured anyone with a half decent profile will be smart enough to follow along and offer ideas of their own. Basically my thought was if I offer ever and expect nothing, I’ll take all the pressure off, and just let them work. Ask me again in a months if this was a good idea or not.

I think working with newbs is fantastic, and I plan to do a lot more of it.

[luipugs]

> It makes less sense in an era when tenure is better measured in months than years.

If a person's tenure in companies is measured in months then they're signalling they're a C by your logic, or is at least raising a red flag to whoever's hiring. I may be showing my age but that sounds wild to me if that's the norm now.

[Antoniocl]

Maybe this depends on the framing? Ex. 18 months is fairly common in some circles, but that could alternatively have been expressed as a year and a half.

6-12 months? Red flag 12-24 months, especially early-to-mid career? Not uncommon

[malux85]

I completely disagree with you and it seems like your assumption is that the transition times are years.

I've seen a B player on my team turn into an A player in just the last couple of months

But I do agree with you about the C thing, if youre a C you need to move immediately to at least a B, otherwise leave

[ecshafer]

> It makes less sense in an era when tenure is better measured in months than years.

Is this common though? Most places I have worked have had people with pretty long tenures. Maybe Silicon Valley during peak ZIRP where you could just keep jumping as long as you could pass the leet code... but then why aren't you staying for RSU vesting?