How to Hire a Jr Dev

Hire literally anyone and pair program with them for a few hours a day. That's your junior developer.

The better question is how do you mentor them and let them grow; especially how do you balance getting them productive quickly with instilling long-term habits and letting them explore their own curiosity?

Either way the real hard one is "how do you convince HR to allow you to increase their salary as they learn, so they don't leave right as they're becoming truly valuable contributors?" If you find an answer to this one let me know.

Work with your local college to intern college juniors over the summer. Make them an offer in the fall of their senior year if you like them.