Pardon the Star Wars analogy, but AI is like “The Force.” For those who know how to use it, there’s extreme power. Meanwhile, if you’re untrained on how to use it, you make mistakes or never reach your potential. You might even become your company’s version of Darth Vader.
Senior engineers with the judgment to steer, verify, and integrate AI output are seeing dramatic productivity gains. You know, they’re the Obi-Wan Kenobis of AI.
But what about the next generation? The moppy-haired Luke Skywalkers?
These early-career devs lack the years of accumulated systems knowledge and definitely aren’t seeing the same gains, according to two Microsoft executives, Mark Russinovich and Scott Hanselman.
As Darryl Taft reports in today’s lead story, early-career devs are feeling the slowness of an “AI drag,” while senior engineers may experience AI as an all-powerful tailwind. The result is a pipeline of Jedi, err, software engineers, that will break down in the years ahead.
The solution proposed by Russinovich and Hanselman is to have dedicated mentors within companies responsible for training junior engineers.
“Without [early-in-career] hiring, the profession’s talent pipeline collapses, and organizations face a future without the next generation of experienced engineers,” they write.
Does your organization have any potential Ben Kenobis wandering around? It may be time to seek them out.
Go deeper: Microsoft execs warn agentic AI is hollowing out the junior developer pipeline
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