We Don’t Need More Coders. We Need Early-Stage Problem Solvers.

Here’s what nobody tells you when you're starting out in tech:

It’s not about how many apps you’ve built.
It’s about how fast you can figure out what actually needs building.

That’s the shift we’re in.
And honestly?
Most hiring pipelines haven’t caught up.

Code Is Not the Hard Part Anymore

Between StackOverflow, GitHub Copilot, and the latest LLMs, writing code isn’t the bottleneck. Knowing what to build—and why—is.

The gap isn’t in syntax. It’s in situational awareness.
The junior engineers I want on my teams aren’t the ones who’ve just completed ten React projects.
They’re the ones who ask:

• “Why does the user even need this feature?”
• “Is this a front-end problem or a data flow issue?”
• “How will this scale once we plug in the real system?”

That kind of thinking isn’t advanced.
It’s just usually unrewarded early in a career.

This Is Bigger Than Tech

It’s the same challenge I’ve run into in consulting.
I don’t care if someone has twenty client projects under their belt if they can’t step into a messy situation and find the signal.

So I’ve been redesigning how we look for people.
Less checklist. More tuning fork.
Less “what have you done?” and more “how do you think?”

And I’m realizing: this same mindset shift needs to happen in how we grow junior engineers.

The False Comfort of Familiar Tools

There’s been this unspoken agreement in tech:
Get good at the latest tool, and someone will give you a shot.

But what we actually need are people who can get dropped into an unfamiliar repo, navigate vague requirements, and still ask the right questions.

Familiarity is fine.
But adaptability is the skill.
And curiosity is the unlock.

What This Means for How We Hire and Develop

Whether you’re hiring a junior dev or a brand-new consultant, here’s what I’ve started prioritizing:

• Give them a problem that’s not fully defined. See how they respond.
• Pay attention to what questions they ask first—not just what answers they offer.
• Look for comfort with ambiguity. That’s the tell.
• And reward clarity-seeking behavior—not just output.

This isn’t about setting people up to fail.
It’s about giving them the conditions to show you how they think.

The Future’s Not About Mastery. It’s About Mental Models.

We’re not just looking for people who can do the work.
We’re looking for people who can learn fast, adapt, and stay steady when things get weird.

Because in the real world?
The brief is never final.
The system is always messier than expected.
And the person who can calmly find the thread—that’s who we build around.