September 2026 · 2 min read
Things are changing. Why stop hiring fresh eyes?
On junior designers, AI, and why a field in motion needs people who haven't learned the old way yet.
The roles are disappearing
I'm looking for my first proper job as a designer right now. Not a side project, not freelance work: an actual entry-level role, on an actual team.
From where I'm standing, those roles seem to be disappearing. Postings that say junior but ask for years of experience. Teams that used to take on someone new, quietly deciding they don't need to anymore. I get why. AI makes experienced people faster, and a junior is someone you have to spend time on.
Still, there's something a bit sad about it. Not just for me, for the field.
The timing feels backwards
Because the timing feels backwards. Design is changing faster than I've ever seen it change. Not only the tools we use, but the thing we're actually designing. What is an interface when you can just ask for what you want? Where does AI belong in a product: in a button, a sidebar, a chat, or quietly everywhere? Should it feel like a tool, or more like a colleague? Nobody has ten years of experience answering those questions. Everyone is figuring it out as they go.
What fresh eyes bring
That's where I think juniors are more useful than they get credit for. We haven't had time to learn the old way of doing things, so we haven't gotten stuck in it either. There's no "this is how we've always done it" in our heads yet. When the ground is moving, that isn't a weakness. It's a different place to look from.
That doesn't mean experience matters less. It matters a lot. Knowing what's worth building, how to work with people, when to push back and when to let go: that takes years, and I'm still learning all of it. I just think the teams that figure this new stuff out will be the ones that have both. People who know how things have worked, and people who don't know yet how things are "supposed" to work.
And honestly, if nobody hires juniors now, I'm not sure where the next generation of seniors is supposed to come from.
Where I'm at
For me, curiosity is the whole reason I'm here. I've been messing around with design since I first got my hands on a PC, long before I knew it could be a job. That hasn't gone anywhere. If anything, a field this unsettled makes it more exciting, not less.
So I'll keep applying, keep building, and keep figuring things out. And if your team is trying to work out what design looks like now, I'd love to work it out with you.