

Ask HN: Senior devs applying for junior position? - partisan

Hi,<p>I recently placed an ad looking for a junior developer for a project paying a very junior rate and yet have received a high percentage of senior developer resumes.<p>As a senior developer, I am curious about why that is. I am also wondering whether I should move forward with those candidates who are, according to their resumes, capable of commanding a rate several multiples of the one I am offering.<p>Your thoughts?
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Fenicio
I'm the kind of person who tries to get a junior position in this case, and I
don't know if I could be called Senior.

Let's say I've been working for almost 3 years in which i have developed fully
on my own Android, Java Swing, Php, AngularJS, C and managed an apache server
with FTP access and virtual domains.

I know half of the people I went Uni with would cry and weep at the prospect
of doing my job, but still, there's nobody to say that I'm senior.

Maybe the person applying just doesn'ty know he's Senior, after all there's no
Standard.

Maybe he's just unemployed and feeling the dread of poverty.

Maybe he has a shitty job and just wants to flee or get better opportunities
of improvement.

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danielki
As others have mentioned, there's no real standard for "senior" developers in
the industry. I ran into this problem back in July when I was job hunting -
half the companies I looked at, I'd qualify as senior, and half of them I'd
qualify as junior.

Their thinking (and I know some people who've found this) might be that it's
easier to get hired as a slightly-overqualified junior developer and promoted
to senior within a year than to get hired as an average senior dev.

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partisan
I guess I understand that rationale, but this was explicitly a project.

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chrisbennet
Once you've been laid off for a while it is hard to find work - they may be
desperate. Ageism is very real.

~~~
partisan
I know it is... I am just at the point where I have to start thinking about
securing my future against ageism.

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fsk
It might make sense for someone switching technology stacks.

Most of my experience is C/C++/PHP. Suppose I want to get a job using Python.
I'm not senior, because I don't have 5+ years Python experience. I'm not
really entry level either.

So how do I switch to using Python?

What happen when demand for my current experience dries up? I'd have to apply
for entry level jobs in other tech stacks.

Am I really less employable than a recent grad? Is my experience really
worthless? Was this a stupid career choice?

~~~
partisan
A fair point. Most of my experience is C#. I would be in the same position
starting on non-MS technology.

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mrfusion
Is it common to apply in hopes that the company has other positions that are a
better fit? Could that be the case here?

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partisan
I did say it was only a gig/project. Not sure if they read further into that?

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smt88
1) Resumes/past experience might be BS

2) Might have personality issues

3) Might have been fired

In my experience, having someone over-qualified is a bad move. However in
development, isn't there always "senior"-level work to do?

I'd say it's not worth following up if you're busy, as great people usually
_know_ they're great...

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johnny22
Great people know they are great? not in my experience. Usually it's the
opposite.

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pyb
What's your location ? It may be the case that the local job market's not very
good at the moment.

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partisan
NYC. I am hoping to find someone junior who works and wants to earn money on
the side.

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fsk
From a candidate's viewpoint, the NYC job market seems really bad right now.
I've been semi-looking for a couple months with no interviews.

If you had a junior candidate and a senior candidate offering to work for the
same rate, would you prefer the junior candidate? Why?

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Armslong
It's a tough market out there

