One of the best things we ever did at CharlieHR - other than hiring junior developers - was developing our career progression framework.

You can find ours and many others at progression.fyi 😄

Having a progression framework helps in three different but really important ways:

1. It sets the expectations with leadership, people managers, and the team
2. It makes the expectations clear to the individual
3. It informs your hiring decisions

Our career progression framework is designed to span an entire career of development, and ranges from Level 1 up to Level 6 for the individual contributor track. We also have a set of people management competencies which start at Level 3 and go up to Level 6.

The expectations for Level 1 - which is “Junior Developer” for developers - are:

Knowledge

• Broad, generalist knowledge of core elements or concepts within their role
• Focus on learning existing tools, resources and processes

Delivery

• Develops their productivity skills by learning and refining their working style and time management
• Capable of taking well-defined sub-tasks and completing them

Communication & Leadership

• Effective in communicating progress to the team
• Asks for and accepts feedback graciously; eager to find ways to improve

These make it clear to the team and to the junior developer themselves that the expectations are not high. We want them to focus on foundational knowledge, delivery and productivity skills within their abilities, and the core communication skills we expect from everyone in the company.

When we hire a junior developer they join us at Level 1 and the Level 1 competencies define the expectations they should be meeting at the end of their probation period. From then they should be maintaining consistency across those and working towards the Level 2 competencies:

Knowledge

• Rarely makes the same mistake twice; learns from failure
• Begins to focus on attaining expertise in one or more areas of their role
• Learns quickly and makes steady progress without the need for constant significant feedback from more senior team members.

Delivery

• Makes steady progress on tasks; knows when to ask for help in order to get themselves unblocked
• Able to own small-to-medium tasks from planning/development through completion;
• Capable of prioritising tasks; avoids getting caught up in unimportant details
• Capable of providing support for their area including parts that they are not familiar with

Communication & Leadership

• Gives timely, helpful feedback to peers and managers
• Communicates assumptions and gets clarification on tasks up front to minimise the need for rework
• Understands how their work fits in to the larger project and identifies problems with requirements

Again, these are realistic expectations that develop naturally from the Level 1 competencies as the developer does their job.

Two to three months into the role you should expect a junior hire to be learning rapidly, delivering more independently on more complex projects, and communicating effectively with their colleagues about their progress.

Lastly, another really important way our progression framework sets expectations around supporting junior developers is in the Communication & Leadership sections for more experienced individual contributors.