If You Stop Hiring Juniors, Your Senior Engineers Own You

If you stop hiring juniors, your senior engineers own you

Justin Smestad argues that firms stopping junior hiring in 2026 risk costly senior-heavy teams by 2030. The mechanism: a senior can demand a 40% raise; without a two-year bench, replacement may take six months. The key issue is pipeline leverage, not quarterly headcount savings.

Why it matters: HKR-H/K/R all pass, but this is an individual commentary, not a model, product, or research release. The 40% raise and 6-month replacement claims give it enough signal for low featured.