Engineering video
1:08 · 6 October 2026
Because companies want developers who can deliver end-to-end without hand-holding, juniors should brand themselves as software engineers, avoid mentioning side projects, and acquire actual work experience through freelancing or volunteering.
Hear it at 0:38 →And above the employment question, the problem is the junior label, the way the industry, recruiters and hiring managers look at juniors, is still as someone that needs hand holding. And given the immense pressure it's on the budgets right now because a lot of companies are buying tokens, they're spending on AI and tokens and so on, they really want someone that just can come into the code base and deliver end to end.
Just because the economics around it. So, what happens is they don't want to bet on someone. It's also, because there's so much change, they don't really know where to go. So, they want the senior people to kind of tell them. They are not ready to absorb junior work. All this is to say is that if you're a junior, you have to brand yourself as a software engineer. Take any work you can, if you can freelance, if you can work for free, if you can do volunteering, so you can add work experience to your to your resume and work with AI and then go to companies and show them how you can deliver end to end.
Never market yourself as a junior and don't mention side projects or anything that makes you look junior. People talk about their portfolio and side projects. Those are they scream junior. You got to show them something that's real.
