https://drlongnecker.com/tags/talent/Recent content in Talent on David R. Longnecker - Converting Coffee to CodeHugoen-usSun, 03 May 2026 09:00:00 -0600https://drlongnecker.com/blog/2026/05/junior-talent-pipeline-ai-development-skills-atrophy/Sun, 03 May 2026 09:00:00 -0600https://drlongnecker.com/blog/2026/05/junior-talent-pipeline-ai-development-skills-atrophy/<p>The work that turned junior engineers into capable mid-level engineers was mostly work nobody else wanted to do.</p> <p>I know this from experience. Thirty years ago, I started in development stitching input screens together on an AIX mainframe in C. The work was tedious, and that was precisely the point: each screen taught me how systems actually connected under the surface, and why they broke in the ways they broke. That informal apprenticeship, embedded in unglamorous work, built the foundation that everything since has rested on. I wouldn&rsquo;t trade any of it.</p>