Tech has a lazy line it keeps repeating:

"There are no good junior developers anymore."

It sounds like a talent diagnosis.

It is usually a management confession.

The industry spent years cutting apprenticeships, thinning mentorship, compressing onboarding, outsourcing training to bootcamps and universities, and turning entry-level job descriptions into mid-level wish lists.

Now the same companies look at juniors using AI to learn and act shocked.

That is not serious.

AI did not create the junior developer problem. It exposed it.

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The pipeline is the problem

Software is not a dying field.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects employment for software developers to grow 15.8% from 2024 to 2034, adding 267,700 jobs.…