When to Choose Junior or Senior Developers
I am focusing on Developers for this article as an example, but a lot of the points I want to make apply to any industry and any type of position. It is obvious to nearly everyone that a candidate with more experience (a senior candidate) is likely to be more productive than someone new to the job (a junior candidate). There are exceptions, but in general, the more you practice a trade the better you will be at it. For an example, Just listen to your favorite band when they started and then when they had 15-20+ years of touring under their belts. There is a noticeable improvement.
No matter what the job/role is, the difference from junior to senior is almost never a straight line. You will find that, as a candidate is more experienced, they become much more productive. As a simple example, a candidate with 1 year more experience may be 10% better, but a candidate with two additional years is probably more than 20% better ( not just 10% better one year and then 10% better the next). The improvement graph of productivity/effectiveness will vary by industry, but IT seems to often be a greater growth curve than other professional areas. An experienced painter may be two or three times more efficient than a junior one, but an experienced developer can be 10 or more times as efficient as a junior one. This is something that should be considered when you are looking for a candidate to fill a position.
The thing about salaries is that the scale from junior to senior rarely matches the productivity gains. This means that a profession where you get your money's worth for a junior employee (I think this is rarely the case) will get you a huge return on investment for a senior employee. With such a large gap in ROI it is important to consider the reasons why you are looking for a junior or a senior developer. Lets look at some arguments for and against each experience type.
First, lets look at what a junior developer might bring to the table. Price is an obvious advantage. Salaries are smaller for a junior developer, but also bonuses and the cost of benefit packages. You also have a large number of places to look for a junior developer. You can find them in masses around May or June when a new crop of college graduates hits the job market. You can also find a steady stream of candidates at nearby technical boot camps; many of which graduate multiple classes each year. You get a developer that is basically putty, they usually have not developed habits (good or bad) and are open to doing things however you tell them to. They are far more likely to take instruction and get to work without arguing about why their way is better. Junior developers are often looking for ways to advance so they may work long hours of unpaid overtime just to get noticed. This is also a trait of developers though, many of them will work long hours due a love of their job, not just to advance their careers.
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Rob is a co-founder of, and frequent contributor to, IT 4 Recruiters. He is also a longtime student of technology as a developer, designer, and manager of software and software projects. He is a founder and principle of RB Consulting and has managed to author a book about his family experiences. In his free time he and his wife Karla keep busy raising eight children and he spends time on the ice playing hockey to relax.