Everyone’s a “Senior” Javascript Developer

I was chatting with a group of CTO’s here in Chicago today, and one of them made a half-joking remark that “everyone’s a ‘senior’ Javascript developer.”

The joke here is that all of us in a position to hire developers are inundated with a flood of new bootcamp grads who can’t find junior positions, so they apply to senior roles and try to upsell their experience. We understand why they do it, but we’re also not stupid — we know not everyone is a really a senior Javascript dev.

The more interesting part of the conversation was how the CTO vets whether a developer is senior or not. He adds a second, more obscure language requirement to the job listings. For example, he adds “must have X years experience writing SQL,” or “must know OCaml.” That way, he can ask one question and weed out most of the unqualified applicants before wasting any more time.

This might be frustrating if you’re new to the field and can’t seem to find any junior dev roles to break into, but to me it showcases the importance of continued learning. If you think your senior Javascript chops will be enough, think again. Keep learning.

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