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Everyone keeps saying we don't need junior engineers anymore. This episode makes the case that's exactly wrong.
Rob sits down with two CircleCI colleagues at opposite ends of the experience spectrum: Hanabel Mengistu, a new grad less than a year into her first engineering role, and Michael Webster, who has been writing software professionally since 2012. Together they explore what it actually feels like to enter the industry right now, when AI has reshuffled the deck for everyone.
The conversation covers the gap between what college teaches (computer science) and what the job actually requires (everything else), the apprenticeship model and how AI is quietly eroding it, and why Hanabel's lack of preconceptions turns out to be a genuine advantage. Rob frames it well: when the tools change fast enough, everyone is back at the beginning together. That's disorienting for veterans, but it might be the best possible moment to be starting out.
Hanabel Mengistu is part of CircleCI's Associate Rotational Program. Webster is a Staff Engineer at CircleCI with over a decade in the industry.
Topics covered:
- Why "we don't need junior devs" is a short-sighted take
- The college-to-industry gap: CS education vs. real software engineering
- How AI is disrupting the apprenticeship model (and creating isolation for juniors)
- The "great leveler" effect: when nobody has 10 years of experience in tools that are 1 year old
- Curiosity as the defining trait for engineers in 2026
- Essential vs. accidental complexity (and why Fred Brooks still matters)
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