--- title: Stop Being a Junior | daily.dev description: "Junior Developer" is a term for a developer who has been working as a software developer for over a year and a half. People with years of experience are more... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/stop-being-a-junior-ld0yivunm twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Stop Being a Junior | daily.dev og:description: "Junior Developer" is a term for a developer who has been working as a software developer for over a year and a half. People with years of experience are more... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/stop-being-a-junior-ld0yivunm og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/LD0YIvunM.png og:image:alt: Stop Being a Junior og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Stop Being a Junior **[Kent C. Dodds](https://daily.dev/sources/kentcdodds)** · [@kentcdodds](https://daily.dev/kentcdodds) · 6 min read · 284 upvotes · 22 comments ## Summary "Junior Developer" is a term for a developer who has been working as a software developer for over a year and a half. People with years of experience are more likely to be able to learn new things faster because often new things resemble old things. Experienced developers are also likely to miss important new features in languages and tools. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@noricode** · 17 upvotes > you will never be senior chasing trendy libraries and languages each year **@pixeliner** · 16 upvotes > Being senior is much more than just copying what seniors do. I can't even count anymore how many PR's I've denied cause of simple fixable performance issues. Or a complete lack of structure. Or some overengineering that wasn't even needed. > > Most juniors/mediors have so much lack in knowledge of even the base of JavaScript. Even some so called seniors... Overusing memoization, overusing states, overusing rediculous utility npm packages, ... > > Thinking ahead seems also something that people don't do. How many times do I see teams working on something to eventually introduce a 2 week refactor... **@1026x1026** · 7 upvotes > This is a great article but the reality is in most cases, a Junior who finished a bootcamp or is self-taught is missing a significant amount of context versus a Junior who just finished a 4-year degree. Depending on the stack being used, this might not be a big deal but it also could be significant. > > Ideally nobody should spend a year and a half in a junior role but depending on job responsibilities, business needs, etc, some people will need nuanced context that isn't an obvious part of day-to-day responsibilities and that could end up making someone spend more time as a junior than would... **@yepasimbeye** · 4 upvotes > This is an eye opener **@mheob** · 2 upvotes > I love this article. Thank you for it. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Don’t just attend KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon, Merge Forward your experience\!](https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-just-attend-kubecon-cloudnativecon-merge-forward-your-experience--l0rpp73x8) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Announcing H2 2026 KCDs](https://daily.dev/posts/announcing-h2-2026-kcds-m96goajm1) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Two months of Open Community Groups](https://daily.dev/posts/two-months-of-open-community-groups-asf52zhbs) · CNCF · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [CNCF Unveils Schedule for KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon Europe 2026](https://daily.dev/posts/cncf-unveils-schedule-for-kubecon-cloudnativecon-europe-2026-ikhcoa5cb) · CNCF · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [CNCF Debuts KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon Japan 2026 Schedule](https://daily.dev/posts/cncf-debuts-kubecon-cloudnativecon-japan-2026-schedule-xp5pyudub) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/stop-being-a-junior-ld0yivunm) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Stop Being a Junior","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/stop-being-a-junior-ld0yivunm","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/stop-being-a-junior-ld0yivunm"},"datePublished":"2023-05-30T20:02:39.309Z","dateModified":"2023-07-20T14:10:56.027Z","description":"\"Junior Developer\" is a term for a developer who has been working as a software developer for over a year and a half. People with years of experience are more...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/29aab237f7d5fa363120f8169e0e4b2b?_a=AQADKdt","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/29aab237f7d5fa363120f8169e0e4b2b?_a=AQADKdt","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Kent C. Dodds","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Kent C. Dodds","url":"https://daily.dev/kentcdodds","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/1500684?v=4","description":"My name is Kent C. Dodds and I'm a JavaScript engineer and teacher. I'm also active in the open source community. I like my family, JavaScript, and React.","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"EndorseAction"},"userInteractionCount":1780}},"commentCount":22,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/stop-being-a-junior-ld0yivunm","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":284},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":22}],"keywords":"","timeRequired":"PT6M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Kent C. Dodds","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/kentcdodds"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Stop Being a Junior"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/stop-being-a-junior-ld0yivunm","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"you will never be senior chasing trendy libraries and languages each year","datePublished":"2023-06-05T17:20:17.130Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/LD0YIvunM#c-Im4EvfTzI","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"noricode","url":"https://daily.dev/noricode","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/v1672934357/avatars/avatar_v9I0Ty3qOPTDx9IvWetC0.jpg"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":17}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Being senior is much more than just copying what seniors do. I can’t even count anymore how many PR’s I’ve denied cause of simple fixable performance issues. Or a complete lack of structure. Or some overengineering that wasn’t even needed.\nMost juniors/mediors have so much lack in knowledge of even the base of JavaScript. Even some so called seniors… Overusing memoization, overusing states, overusing rediculous utility npm packages, …\nThinking ahead seems also something that people don’t do. How many times do I see teams working on something to eventually introduce a 2 week refactor sprint, not understanding the cost that it takes to do this (we are talking about 50k+)… All this because they didn’t plan ahead of time.\nFor me a real senior, is an engineer, an architect, someone who is able to solve issues by knowing where to look. And not just ChatGPT, StackOverFlow, …\nThe biggest issue with developers nowadays, is that most people start of learning by tutorials. But 99% of all of them are SH*T. Stop using them, learn from the documentation, learn from good open source code, learn how they used certain patterns, learn their tricks. Do some coding challenges… But stop following those “Create your own Facebook clone”.","datePublished":"2023-06-14T13:10:29.290Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/LD0YIvunM#c-7R8jUj8iS","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Peter Vercauteren","url":"https://daily.dev/pixeliner","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/AATXAJx_5BNul2EwE7bFASM9aaLFUpMZnpnP5kCtXEpL=s100"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":16}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"This is a great article but the reality is in most cases, a Junior who finished a bootcamp or is self-taught is missing a significant amount of context versus a Junior who just finished a 4-year degree. Depending on the stack being used, this might not be a big deal but it also could be significant.\nIdeally nobody should spend a year and a half in a junior role but depending on job responsibilities, business needs, etc, some people will need nuanced context that isn’t an obvious part of day-to-day responsibilities and that could end up making someone spend more time as a junior than would be ideal.\nMy first Junior job was remote, client based work that was charged hourly, so learning on the fly was much different than it had been for me up to that point. Everything was doable but I could feel my learning had slowed down to a glacial pace and it almost seemed like I was being kept at a Junior level for financial reasons while I was doing the work that other devs / sr. devs were doing, at a fraction of the salary. I left this job once I felt I had the skills I needed to get a better one.","datePublished":"2023-06-07T12:20:31.463Z","dateModified":"2023-07-21T11:17:15.337Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/LD0YIvunM#c-UmD33We12","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"1026","url":"https://daily.dev/1026x1026","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/50276198?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":7}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"This is an eye opener","datePublished":"2023-06-07T18:17:26.519Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/LD0YIvunM#c-AgD3Jqgpu","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"yepa simbeye","url":"https://daily.dev/yepasimbeye","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/AAcHTteujVMF9M6cl1LXcvZkp08Z0RAqOGTzqldbCHFF=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":4}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"I love this article. Thank you for it.","datePublished":"2023-06-06T14:19:56.263Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/LD0YIvunM#c-8GEyqHGbu","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Alex Böhm","url":"https://daily.dev/mheob","image":"https://avatars3.githubusercontent.com/u/3983539?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}}]} ```