Q: We want to hire more engineers who are early-career. What are hiring approaches that work well for other companies?

A timely topic. Hiring software engineers with less experience is an underrated strategy. 

In this article we cover:

• Reasons to hire entry-level engineers. The six largest benefits that these developers bring to the table.

• Team dynamics to consider before hiring less experienced engineers.

• Hiring approaches for early-career talent, as observed across the industry. The five most common hiring tactics, their benefits and drawbacks.

Hiring, however, is only one part of building a team with entry-level engineers. Two other articles that build on this piece are:

• Growing a junior-heavy team

• Retaining software engineers

I suggest treating the three things - hiring entry-level engineers, growing a junior-heavy team, and retaining these engineers - as one unit. With that, let’s jump into the reasons to hire early-career engineers: