[morbidhawk]

> junior developers which use the same hammer for every nail

This is what is weird about programming is that you only need to know a subset of things to build stuff so it gives a lot of Jr developers a false sense of know-how and confidence (I was like this for a long while). I think a willingness to own up to what you don't know and like you said "research what's the best way to do it, consult with senior developers" is a hard obstacle to get past. I wonder if this might make it hard for hiring managers to assess skill, jr devs are probably more likely to sell themselves as more than they are and mid devs might be more likely to admit what they don't know.

[eagerNewb]

A thing every hiring manager should ask, at least for Software jobs, is for you to show him code you've written. The best way to understand if someone has spend two, three or five years doing this, is to read his code. In case the interviewer doesn't ask me for my code, I would do it anyway. There is always this piece of code you are particularly proud of. Perhaps creating 10 ways to achieve the same thing. Senior developers write clean, efficient code ( if they don't, they should ). Junior developers find a way and if it works, hey it works! Mid level developers write a piece of crap code, but they see it as such. They make the difference. Once the difference is maid, you can go and ask the senior developer. Or do some research. Or both. This became visible to me once I wasn't in the phase "Oh shit, I don't know how I'm going to do this."