Thread by @mipsytipsy

I will go on retweeting any jobs that are seeking (and set up to support) junior engineers, so keep them coming.

https://twitter.com/DavidCSloane/status/1194819426740326402

I generally have a very high opinion of @Netflix engineering, (is there no @netflixeng?) which is why it really, really pains me every time I think about their policy of only hiring (very) senior engineers.

I've heard all the arguments. I get it. I just think you're wrong.

I think there is a strong moral case to be made for hiring junior engineers once you can support them, and moral hazard in not doing so -- in freeloading off of others' investments.

But let's assume you've heard all that and are just as sure that I'm wrong. That's fine.

The way you define the people you want to hire -- very senior engineer, peak of their career, best of the best yada yada" -- seems needlessly narrow. It would rule out many of the most effective engineers I have ever worked with!

There's just too many different ways to be excellent, and they wax and wane and shift over course of your career.

I was once a smashing good mysql DBA. Because I needed to be. Now I am not. Careers aren't linear.

It also puts SO much emphasis on the individual. But the individual isn't the most important unit in the engineering org, the team is.

Individuals don't build or support products. Teams do.

Reality isn't even the biggest concern I would have, were I you. Perception is worse.

What kind of people are attracted to a job advertised in such an aggressively exclusionary fashion? Only a small fraction of the overall pool of exceptional engineers, I'd wager.

Interviews are hard, even when you aren't walking up to an organization that seems to take pride in saying most aren't good enough.

Having an excess of self confidence isn't necessarily correlated with possessing the engineering skills one needs to do the job.

I am a fan of opinionated cultures. I admire many things about Netflix's. Unlike many of my peers, I am not necessarily opposed to, like, "we have a culture of long hours and hard work."

But as you grow, I wonder if you can continue to source as many "super senior" engineers

as you need to build your systems. And I wonder if the cultural side effects will become too costly -- the cutthroat competitiveness, the monoculture, the alienating aspects to other groups.

If so, i think hiring juniors would be an excellent and meaningful lever for change.