Keynote - We All Need Junior Developers
“Breaking through” and finding that first job as an entry-level developer was already hard, and it’s only getting worse: Layoffs saturated the early-career talent pool, the skill floor keeps ramping up, job postings have fallen off, the specter of AI looms, and economic uncertainty has been lopped on top. It feels like a lot of people are holding their breath and waiting for something to shake out.
Organizations need junior developers and the senior-level skills they represent in the future. Current senior-level developers need them, too. The fix? It’s a combination of coursework, community, employers, and the developers themselves. We’ll talk through each, and why we can’t leave the current situation as-is.
Fun facts about Nick:
An honest-to-goodness Central Florida native, Nick Walsh serves as managing partner for a software company that shares his CFL roots: Envy Labs. Since 2009, Envy’s been building applications for startups, startups at heart, and bootstrapping its own products — most notably, a later-acquired learn-to-code platform called Code School.
After 20 years of calling Orlando home, Nick’s a fan of helping local developers, founders, and organizations succeed. He’s a member of Orlando Devs, Innovate Orlando, Cenfluence, and mentors for the UCF Business Incubation Program.