u/michaelnovati replied ·
There are a ton of reasons and they depend a bit on the specific companies as well.
1. A lot of big tech junior developers get hired via internships or new grad recruiting via college. So when roles are open, there might just be a single job rec amongst a sea of others, or even a separate, seasonal, website for these roles.
2. Smaller companies tend to not have the resources to train and grow junior engineers. The amount of impact an engineer has grows exponentially, so a big company thinking long term might have the resources to grow senior engineer on their own. Smaller companies need people who can code right off the bat.
3. Job recs tend to overstate required experience. There have been a flood of bootcamp grads applying for entry level jobs and it makes sorting through applicants challenging. Some people exaggerate their experience in controversial ways (eg. listing group projects as work experience). As a result, some smaller companies will list higher years of experience in hopes of getting people with just any professional experience.
4. In a tougher job market with layoffs and freezes, companies can take less risk. A junior candidate who isn’t producing value for the company can be damaging to the bottom line short term. So companies might actually be hiring high potential junior candidates still but through backchannel referrals instead of public posts.