r/JavaProgramming • u/SuccessPuzzled2562 • Sep 05 '26
What do you expect from an entry-level Java developer?
Hi everyone,
I'm an aspiring entry-level Java developer, currently preparing myself for my first role, and I wanted to understand something from people who are already working in the industry.
What are your actual expectations from a fresher or entry-level Java developer?
I'm not specifically asking about a list of technologies to learn. I'm more interested in understanding the capabilities and qualities you expect from someone with little or no professional experience.
What makes you feel that a fresher is genuinely ready to work as a junior developer and contribute to a real team or codebase?
Also, what separates an average entry-level candidate from someone who stands out?
I'd especially appreciate perspectives from experienced developers, senior engineers, team leads, or anyone involved in hiring and mentoring freshers.
Just trying to understand what the industry realistically expects from someone at the beginning of their software development career.
Thanks!
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u/Cautious-Necessary61 Sep 05 '26
Things to accomplish first 3 years
GIT repository
IDE know how
Debug server side code base
Write unit test
Follow directions and think on your own
Understanding dev process
Build code base
Deploy local built code to run local
Jenkins build feature branch
Dockers
Change existing code
Write new code with heavy hand holding
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u/SuccessPuzzled2562 Sep 06 '26
What if already done with the 4 years of coding and looking to get ab entry in the IT?
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u/carrot3055 Sep 06 '26
I've mentored a number of junior devs over the years, including some fresh from school or those on their first internships.
If you've already got a job, congrats! Here's what I found the best junior devs usually did:
The were proactive: learned on their own as much as they could, asked a lot of questions, followed up on tasks, and came to me when they were out of work. The worst ones sat there waiting to be told what to do and did nothing unless told; I had to check up on them regularly.
Asked a questions about everything: the systems, the business, the processes, etc. You're an entry-level hire, and that's expected; in fact, many people may even welcome it.
For the first year, focus on making sure that you understand the code, the patterns used in it (and why they're used that way), common processes (tickets, PRs, sprints, unit testing, etc), various related components like DB and infrastructure, and how exactly these systems work together to handle various user-facing flows. You can use AI to help with a lot of it.
At first, you may need a lot of hand-holding and your code will need a lot detailed reviews. You may get a lot of feedback, including some that'll basically say "rewrite everything". Don't take it personally; learn why the changes were asked, make the fixes, and move on. After 19 years of experience, I still sometimes get "rewrite everything"-type PR feeback, and sometimes it's right.
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u/SuccessPuzzled2562 Sep 06 '26
Thank you so much! I'm currently looking to start my career in IT, but getting callbacks as a fresher has been challenging. I'd appreciate connecting on LinkedIn, and any guidance or referral opportunities would be really helpful.
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u/pradeepngupta 10d ago
I have been a software wngineer for 22+ years and mostly on Java. I did worked in all three editions of Java - SE, ME, EE.
As an entry level -
you should have logical reasoning with good aptitude.
if you are already writing programs in Java, I would assume that You can write structured programming in Java.
Theoretically you should know most of the java features like Collection framework, String pool, Object pool, ways to create new objects etc.
You should know Object Oriented Programming, at least theoretically.
you should know build tools like Maven or Gradle, like what @letusspeakfreely explains.
you should know atleast one IDE, either VSCode or Intellij Idea, start learning hot keys, to operate solely with keyboards only.
you should know Git fundamentals or any other SCM tools.
you should know a deployment tool or atleast deployment script for any cloud env like AWS, GCP or Azure.
you should know how to use AI like Copilot or claude code, atleast little bit of prompting.
I believe these should be sufficient for any freshers or early developers. And the most importantly you should have skills to learn and improve yourself daily and skills of problem solving.
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u/SuccessPuzzled2562 9d ago
i know this concepts but still getting a job as a fresher is very difficult
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u/CodeCodeCode3 Sep 06 '26
The other answers are great advice. Don't be afraid to ask questions, but take good notes so you don't have to ask again - you won't remember everything all the time, even your own code. Diagrams help too. People might start coming to you for how stuff works - which is great for you. It's really nice when a new hire knows how to use git, they can pull down a code base, rebase their branch, resolve conflicts, create pull requests, and follow up from feedback. Ask if the team has common coding standards and adapt to them to help ease PR reviews, also helps to know if there are any common libraries the team uses so you don't have reinvent the wheel unnecessarily. Show an eagerness to learn, initiative, and competence and soon enough you'll be a key asset to the project. Your coworkers want you to succeed!Â
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u/afierdienst1 Sep 10 '26
beans and coffee duh breakfast stank,. make more kids. eat it up. cereal for serious thinkers: how to recognize a misspelled word.
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Sep 06 '26
[removed] â view removed comment
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u/LetUsSpeakFreely Sep 05 '26
I've been a software engineer for 25 years, mostly Java, but also some Go, and frontend stuff too.
You should know how to use Maven. Gradle is good too, some would say it's better, but Maven is still the good standard. You should know how to add dependencies, and how to either perform dependency surgery to update inner dependencies or leverage spring-managed libraries to keep libraries up-to-date (important for SAST scans and such)
You should learn spring, Springboot, and hibernate. You don't need to be an expert, nobody (reasonable anyway) expects that. But you should know their capabilities, structures, and shortcomings.
Whatever IDE you prefer, you should know how to use it effectively. Learn the hot keys.
Learn to use Git. You don't need to know everything, but you should know how to pull, branch, commit, and push at the very least. Dealing with rebase, merges, and merge conflicts is helpful, but you'll probably need help with that.
Your early career will very likely be bug fixes, and minor bugs at that. Even if you're at a senior level of experience, any time you join a new project you'll very likely be given grunt work. This is so you can learn the code base, but just to know where things are, but why things are.
You'll notice there very little in that list specific to Java. That's because you will very likely not be doing anything more complicated than modifying existing code, writing unit tests, and doing documentation until your lead feels comfortable giving you more responsibility. After that, you'll likely be assigned to help a senior person with new components and features: writing POJOs, unit tests, implementing simple functions from stubs, etc