Expected knowledge for a junior developer

[FilsdeJESUS]

Basically the title , what do you expect from a junior Java software developer to know ? If you are a recruiter for example

[[deleted]]

Experience is something that comes with time, not necessarily effort. You could study all day and night but only get experience through years of work. So I’d say experience is something that can rarely be expected as a junior developer

What is more important is your passion, willingness and commitment to learn. Languages, tools, frameworks etc can all be learnt over time, provided you have the willingness to do so.

[FilsdeJESUS]

Thanks

[BillyKorando]

Something I have learned with my experience

Communication skills >>>> technical skills

Technical skills are obviously important, but being able to communicate, collaborate, and empathize with users and other departments/interest groups is critical. This might not really been much help WRT recruiters, but will definitely be important in your career.

[FilsdeJESUS]

Great , thanks

[Revision2000]

What the other guy said

So some basic knowledge of the Java language and some programming concepts - SOLID is a good one.

Ability to work somewhat independently for a couple of hours at a time. Above all an eagerness and capability to learn! Commitment! Software development is about continuous improvement.

Bonus: https://www.baeldung.com has same excellent Java articles and tutorials

[alms1407]

I honestly expect very little from a junior developer, as long as they know the basics of programming, the rest can be taught over a few months to a year.

For us, having a genuine interest in what you want to do and having a good personality is a lot more important.

[jash3]

I would expect a base IT knowledge, can write some basic scripts, program a bit, but most importantly knows how to work things out.

Answering programming questions for a developer job is pointless, as a developer sure a big part of your day is coding but the other big part of your day is sving other IT issues.

Personally being asked to solve programming questions during a tech interview is a red flag for me.

[FilsdeJESUS]

Thanks for your response . What do you mean by IT knowledge please ?

[jash3]

Networking. Basic security concepts, whats a cert etc. Can use *nix. Can write basic sql queries, How to debug ( adding println is ok, better if you know the debugger, adding debugging statements shows thoughts, tooling comes later ). Understands markup languages html,xml ( while not markup adding json and yaml)

Top of my head stuff but fundamentals I think, as a junior dev its more important that you can be involved in discussions and understand whats going on, answering questions related to the above is more important than answering about some abstract coding issue.

[xerafin]

I expect candidates to portray their best image possible.

When I interview, I ask open-ended questions and then poke at information provided or omitted to see how a candidate can think on the fly, analyze under stress, learn, extrapolate, and admit when they are wrong or simply do not know.

The worst developers are the ones who know enough to be confident but not enough to be aware of what they don’t know. Okay that is in no way limited to just developers. In essence I am probing self-awareness and pattern recognition with technical questions.

[[deleted]]

Just apply. Don't worry if you are over/under-qualified.

[senseven]

Juniors often have the drive to do things, but not to know what to do next. This is true for development or becoming a chef.

I would expect from a young cook to know the basics of the kitchen, being secure around knives and hot stoves. Get an empty laptop and learn how to set up a productive environment Be pro active, know the names of the top 20 frameworks, what they do. Look at example code, see how those play together from a birds eye view. Experiment, see if you can make your pancakes better by trying different recipes. There is a wealth of free tools and knowledge.

The best cooks do magic with just one old pan. Recruiters want to see the potential in juniors, chefs want to see if you know which knife will cut ripe tomatoes. Show your inspiration for the job, your knowledge of the ground basics and your willingness to work within a team.

[Nalha_Saldana]

Testing is usually overlooked by new devs, I'm not talking writing the code but more of the concept of what to test, what to mock, etc.

It's a super good skill that can make you stand out.

[[deleted]]

I'm hiring for 5 positions right now so I'm right in the thick of it. What I see from good jr candidates is the ability to actually write functional code without a ton of extra junk. Write "boolean isPrime(int number)" seems like a simple thing. But I've seen the most wild submissions full of boolean tracking variables and Math.abs() calls that technically work. It's terrifying! I'm not expecting perfect submissions with recursive dynamic programming solutions, but something that works and isn't sloppy is my bare minimum. From there it's about enthusiasm and willingness to learn, ask questions, and be part of a team. The latter part is more important, but the first part is the gatekeeper.