Do Junior Developers Add Value to Companies?

what this article reflects is that companies don't care about training. they want to hire everyone with experience. just look at HN whoishiring. everyone wants senior developers. now HN may be the right place for that, but everywhere else, all the jobboards i see are dominated by demand for senior devs. junior jobs are rare. maybe that is because they look for juniors elsewhere (directly in in schools for example), but i suspect it is because nobody wants to invest into the next generation.

and as the article suggests, why even hire developers at all when AI can build apps by itself. but if we ask that, we may as well ask why even send children to school. if they are not learning what the industry needs, then why bother at all?

yes, i am sarcastic, the need for experienced developers will not go away, and these developers need to come from somewhere.

next to the two options there is another option C:

send people to school until they are 30. if companies won't hire people without experience, then school needs to provide that experience. now ask yourself if that is realistic. it isn't.

so option D? let the industry crash. until companies learn that they need to train their own people.

personally, whenever i am in the position, i only hire junior developers. and if the current trend continues then the salaries for juniors will go down so that eventually they will become profitable faster.