When I was a hiring manager at Yahoo, I constantly included a mix of new developers to veteran ones (perhaps a 80/20 split) for many reasons:
+ New devs can soak up a ton of knowledge quickly.
+ New devs don't come with a lot of baggage and tend to enjoy trying lots of new things.
+ New devs brought new ideas to the team that often challenged traditional ways of thinking.
+ While veteran devs acted as mentors and shared best practices.
From a recruiting standpoint, it's also easier to find new developers than veteran ones. So many companies fight for experienced talent that they overlook inexperienced talent, which meant I could assemble a good team relatively quickly.
It changed the recruiting process quite a bit though. Interviews became more about assessing potential and ability to learn than existing skills (which I think is more important anyways). It's not easy to assess for these things though.
It also changed the training process and team dynamic. The environment was one of constant learning and collaboration. New ideas were welcomed, code reviews were frequent, everyone was encouraged to hold a quick informal brownbag session on something they learned (even if others were known to be the "experts"), formal mentoring programs were established, etc.
And it made the veteran hires even more important. These devs needed to not only be strong technically, but strong with interpersonal skills too. But someone who can do this and support an inexperienced team with lots of potential is worth their weight in gold.
A lot of good developers emerged from this process. And I should add that new != young developers. There were some devs who changed careers to become devs, and shared the same energy and ability to learn as recent college graduates.
I wish I had kept a list of all the ideas you brought to the table that significantly influenced the team. From the Clarion method of code reviews to team seating arrangements to all the innovative ideas that we later saw being implemented by other startups, you were and are a font of inspiration and ideas! Your current team is extremely lucky to have you!
This is great. I got my first tech-related job (my first job ever, to be fair) because a hiring manager took a chance on me. This opened the doors for me to work at some great companies.
+ New devs can soak up a ton of knowledge quickly.
+ New devs don't come with a lot of baggage and tend to enjoy trying lots of new things.
+ New devs brought new ideas to the team that often challenged traditional ways of thinking.
+ While veteran devs acted as mentors and shared best practices.
From a recruiting standpoint, it's also easier to find new developers than veteran ones. So many companies fight for experienced talent that they overlook inexperienced talent, which meant I could assemble a good team relatively quickly.
It changed the recruiting process quite a bit though. Interviews became more about assessing potential and ability to learn than existing skills (which I think is more important anyways). It's not easy to assess for these things though.
It also changed the training process and team dynamic. The environment was one of constant learning and collaboration. New ideas were welcomed, code reviews were frequent, everyone was encouraged to hold a quick informal brownbag session on something they learned (even if others were known to be the "experts"), formal mentoring programs were established, etc.
And it made the veteran hires even more important. These devs needed to not only be strong technically, but strong with interpersonal skills too. But someone who can do this and support an inexperienced team with lots of potential is worth their weight in gold.
A lot of good developers emerged from this process. And I should add that new != young developers. There were some devs who changed careers to become devs, and shared the same energy and ability to learn as recent college graduates.