The Junior Hiring Paradox

According to US job posting data for May 2026, senior design roles increased by 14.7%, while entry-level roles dropped by 7.5% compared with the previous year. As someone who's spent years working in design and is growing into product management, I find that contrast hard to ignore. We're looking for more experienced people while creating fewer opportunities for others to gain that experience. Something doesn't quite add up.

The Experience Paradox

I understand why companies prioritize experience. Budgets are tight, timelines are shorter, and AI is changing how much work we can get done with smaller teams. We want people who can hit the ground running, make smart decisions, and figure things out without needing someone looking over their shoulder every five minutes. Fair enough. But experience has to come from somewhere.

When I look back at my own career, I know that I didn't learn everything overnight. I had opportunities to experiment, make mistakes, collaborate with people more experienced than me, and gradually take on bigger challenges. Someone had to trust me before I had the experience to prove I was worth trusting. That's the catch with hiring: if everyone wants a fully grown tree, somebody still needs to plant the seeds.

Sometimes, People Surprise You

Recently at AlayaCare, we opened the door to an internship role in front-end development. What caught my attention was how quickly the work moved forward and how much less guidance was needed than we had anticipated. We expected to spend more time explaining, reviewing, and helping along the way. Instead, we saw someone take the opportunity and run with it. It reminded me that we can sometimes underestimate what junior talent is capable of before giving them a chance to show us.

From my perspective as both a Product Designer and someone growing into product management, I think there's a lot we can learn from bringing fresh talent onto a team. Juniors ask questions we've stopped asking, challenge assumptions we've accepted for years, and often jump into new tools, AI included, without the baggage of established habits. Sometimes, the person who's been on the team for three weeks spots something the rest of us have overlooked for three years. A little humbling? Sure. Useful? Absolutely.

Of course, I'm not suggesting that hiring juniors is a magical productivity hack. Mentorship takes time, mistakes happen, and not everyone will need the same level of support. But that's part of building a team. I believe we should give junior designers meaningful problems to solve, involve them in conversations, pair them with experienced teammates, and let them own work from beginning to end. Handing someone a backlog of tiny tasks isn't the same as helping them grow.

Build the Team You'll Need Tomorrow

As I spend more time thinking about product strategy and team collaboration, I keep coming back to the importance of investing in people, not just processes and tools. We can optimize roadmaps, improve design systems, and use AI to move faster, but none of that automatically teaches someone how to understand a user, navigate conflicting feedback, or recognize when a beautiful solution doesn't actually solve the problem. Those instincts come from experience, and experience comes from doing the work.

Five years from now, we'll still need designers and product people who can think critically, collaborate, and build things people love. If we only hire people who already know how to do everything, where will the next generation of experienced talent come from? We can't complain about a talent shortage while quietly closing the door behind us.

I'm grateful for the people who gave me opportunities to learn, experiment, and grow throughout my career. I wouldn't be where I am today without them. That's something I want to carry forward, whether I'm working with designers, developers, or an entire product team.

So, the next time we're hiring, I think it's worth asking ourselves one more question: are we looking for the best person to do the job today, or are we also willing to invest in the person who could become great at it tomorrow?

Your next senior designer might be today's junior. Sometimes, all they need is someone willing to take a chance.

When was the last time you gave someone their first real shot?