The Death of Junior Dev Roles (And Why That's Bad for All of Us)

Something weird is happening in tech hiring right now. Companies are posting "mid-level" roles that require 5+ years of experience. Entry-level listings are ghost towns. And meanwhile, AI coding assistants are getting so good that some teams are wondering if they even need junior developers anymore. This is a mistake. A big one. And it's going to bite this industry in the ass. The "Experience Inflation" Trap Remember when "junior" meant 0-2 years? Those days feel ancient. Now you're seeing "entry-level" jobs asking for three years of professional experience, contributions to open source, and a portfolio that looks like someone who's been coding since middle school. What's driving this? A few things: AI makes senior devs more productive , so teams think they can just skip the mentoring overhead Economic pressure means companies want people who can ship immediately The bar keeps rising — today's junior dev knows more than a mid-level dev from 2015 But here's what they're missing: junior