alt Hacker News> we hire Juniors to help fill the talent pool with the hope that they will be productive in a few months
The sad reality for smaller companies is that we cannot compete salary-wise, which means training juniors that will leave the minute they become productive
But mostly the issue is with the market, there are only so many things you need a junior to do in a body shop that is getting squeezed
Other companies are also cash constrained and need to pivot fast to "AI"-something, which juniors wont really help with on the short-term
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Depends on the field I guess. Some smaller companies I've seen have dramatically lower leadership costs, so ICs get more of the share of the gross revenue. Even with perhaps a discount to clients for choosing a small business, they can still come out on top
FWIW, your pessimism isn't entirely well-founded. If you're in a hot, tech-centric market, then yes, staff will be far more inclined to job hop for comp increases. But if you're hiring remote or you're located outside one of the very few tech hubs, employees value quality of life and workplace culture/relationships much more highly relative to comp. E.g. If you're hiring a SWE in Nashville or Portland or Columbus they're going to behave differently than if you're hiring in the Bay Area, Seattle area, NYC, Boston or Austin.