Recently I was featured on the Cigars and Crypto podcast! It was an enjoyment and an honor to be able to speak about my background and have the opportunity to talk about the CodeLife Investment Group. Please give this podcast a like and a share!
10 Tips to Hire and Retain Great Software Developers
Software developers could be the secret weapon for most companies. They can be as important as your leadership team. Do you want to know why? According to this recent Stripe and Harris report, 70% of your company’s success depends on the quality of your software developers. People spend most of their time on their phones on mobile apps than doing any other activity. So companies need to make users feel products are easily accessible. A mobile app for a retail company can significantly boost its sales. Us, as users, prefer to look for deals on a functional app rather than shopping at a store.
However, most software developers prefer to work remotely according to these statistics. And it’s no surprise. With the rise of tech jobs, the need for remote working increases. But hiring a remote worker is not an easy thing. Here, we’ll show you 10 tips that’ll ease your job when recruiting remote software developers.
- Don’t Use a Generic Hiring Test
If you’re not a software developer or have zero knowledge of coding, likely, you’ll just find a generic test on the internet and make aspirants show their skills this way. First, the more generic it is, the more likely applicants will know it. Maybe other recruiters like you already used it. So it won’t transparently show you applicant skills.
Besides, sometimes generic tests do not reflect the requirements of your company. So this won’t show you how an applicant would fit in your business. If you have coding knowledge, test them with potential programming challenges to prove themselves. If you don’t know how to code, you can consult with the experts to draft a suitable test.
- Provide Developers with the Tools They Need
Good developers will work only with companies that provide a good environment, and this includes having tech tools that’ll make their jobs easier and more efficient. This is also something that your company can benefit from. If your software developer is productive and efficient, this will show positive outcomes for your business. Some of these tools could be ClickUp, KeyCode Info, and HTML Minifier. The key is to become a software developer’s heaven.
- Don’t Limit Resources
Even though software developers don’t look like artists, they are. And artists need the freedom and tools to scale their creativity level. Developers solve problems through their programming knowledge and there’s not only a single way to solve problems – there are many ways to do it. Setting boundaries will only make them waste time and limit their creativity. The best way to act is to allow them to work with different programming languages and tools that’ll make them feel comfortable.
- Maintain Constant Communication
When working on a digital product, communication is key. If you want an intuitive interface, you need to work shoulder-to-shoulder with your developer. If the developer doesn’t have good communication skills, the project won’t be successful. So it’s very important to check that aspirants understand your point of view and are able to come up with great ideas that’ll make the project better.
- Consider Talent vs Resume
When hiring a remote software developer, it’s not all about their resume. In the end, you need to know if they’re capable of doing the job your company needs to get done. Even though an aspirant has worked at a great company, it doesn’t mean he’ll be able to run your project successfully. For example, there could be coding bootcamps graduates that don’t have any experience at all but their skills are elevated. That’s why it’s so important to test them before hiring someone. Tests will tell you more than their resume.
- Ensure Steady Internet Connection
When working remotely, this is very important and will also result in good communication, if your developer has a stable internet connection. Imagine this: maybe you found a great software developer; he passed the test and he has a great attitude, but he doesn’t have a good connection. This will make your recruitment process effortless because that developer is not going to meet deadlines and be as productive as other aspirants would.
- Offer Career Opportunities
According to this Stack Overflow Developer Survey, an important benefit that software developers consider when choosing a job is to have career development opportunities. Don’t be afraid to offer them this opportunity when recruiting because it will be reflected in your company’s outcome. Career opportunities increase motivation, therefore, developers will be more likely to work efficiently.
- Inspire Passion and Motivation
Someone that’s only applying for a job position because it’ll pay the bills is not the kind of person you want in your company. Passionate people don’t only work because of the salary, they do it because they enjoy it, and they will probably put all their effort into succeeding because they challenge themselves towards better results every time. Passionate aspirants will be the ones that’ll bring success to your company.
- Know That Coding Ability is Crucial
Badly-written code is not just something about aesthetics, it can cause terrible productivity issues to your company. It usually has to be re-written or modified. Maybe the algorithm is functional, but if you want to modify anything later, it’ll be a tedious task and your team will have to spend more time fixing the code. So when you’re hiring a remote software developer, make sure they’re able to produce well-written code.
- Be Clear About Deadlines and Timezones
Time Zones can be very tricky when it comes to meeting deadlines, so it’s important to be clear with aspirants. This way, they can organize their schedule towards the deadlines and they’ll be more likely to meet deadlines.
This post was provided by Career Karma
Github Actions Make CI/CD A Breeze
I will be the first to admit that even though I have an adequate DevOps and programming knowledge base; I have been reluctant to embrace best practices such as testing and employing continuous integration. I finally got over it once I realized that I was wasting time and losing money by NOT doing these things. Since I use Github for over 90% of my projects I decided to give Github Actions a try.
GitHub Actions makes it easy to automate all your software workflows, now with world-class CI/CD. Build, test, and deploy your code right from GitHub. Make code reviews, branch management, and issue triaging work the way you want.
Github actions allows for ultimate flexibility for continuous integration and deployment.
With Github Actions you can choose when deployments run based on triggers such as: push, merge, comments and more. In this example I will show you how to add a simple .yml file that will run your Laravel tests and push to Laravel Forge upon successful tests.
Enabling Github Actions In Your Project
The first thing that must be done in any project to use Github Actions is to add the .github/workflows/ci.yml file this file will house the YAML script that will run on your deployments. In my example the code looks like this
on: push
name: CI
jobs:
phpunit:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
container:
image: kirschbaumdevelopment/laravel-test-runner:7.3
services:
mysql:
image: mysql:5.7
env:
MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: password
MYSQL_DATABASE: test
ports:
- 33306:3306
options: --health-cmd="mysqladmin ping" --health-interval=10s --health-timeout=5s --health-retries=3
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v1
with:
fetch-depth: 1
- name: Install composer dependencies
run: |
composer install --no-scripts
- name: Prepare Laravel Application
run: |
cp .env.ci .env
php artisan key:generate
- name: Run Testsuite
run: vendor/bin/phpunit tests/
- name: Deploy to Laravel Forge
run: curl ${{ secrets.FORGE_DEPLOYMENT_WEBHOOK }}
The first line “on” defines the trigger that will run the script, in this case it is whenever we push to our repo. Next we give it a “name” which in this example we call CI. Afterwards we define “jobs” that will run when the Action is called, in this example we will run phpunit on a linux machine running the latest ubuntu OS running a laravel 7 docker image. Next we define the services, we only need to use MySQL so we bring in that image. Lastly we define the steps :
– checkout the latest push
– install the Composer dependencies
– copy the .env.ci to the .env and generate the encrypted application key
– run the tests
– deploy to Laravel Forge
# database
DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=mysql
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=test
DB_USERNAME=root
DB_PASSWORD=password
Above is the .env.ci file. In the last step we use secrets. Secrets are a way for you to put sensitive information like keys in your repository settings without putting them in source control.
After each push now it will run the tests and if they pass will deploy to Laravel Forge. Watch my YouTube video for a more in depth explanation!
Residual Income With Apps Is A Hot Topic Now
Since i have made this thread last year about app investing I have been drowned in requests to get in on the action. I decided to take two routes. The first being my business partner Ricky Mason and I are creating a blockchain powered investment app called 401KApps which will allow anyone to invest into apps and allow app developers to raise money all in a decentralized manner. Secondly I started a community called The Code Life Group which comprises of a daily app pick of the day email, access to my Discord group and a special app investment channel and weekly calls talking about investment strategies.
I am giving some free game on choosing residual income apps for your digital portfolio. Keep in mind I am not a financial or investment advisor and these strategies are personal things I look for when I am choosing apps or websites to buy.
Maintenance Time
The first thing I look for when choosing an acquisition is how much time I will have to spend on said app/website once I purchase. The whole point of living a #CodeLife is that I don’t want to work, I want my apps to work for me. It defeats the purpose if I buy a job.
If the app/website generates enough revenue where I can feasibly outsource the maintenance work, then I will still consider the purchase. I just have to ensure the left over profit is enough to justify the spend.
Scalability
The next thing I look at is how scalable the app or website I’m looking to purchase is. Can I grow my potential earnings and if so by how much? This is a big factor because I try to find the apps that haven’t been given much attention but could easily scale up.
Advertising
Lastly when I’m choosing a residual income acquisition I look how much I need to spend in advertising to generate the revenue I desire. This applies heavily to drop shipping websites where marketing is the bulk of the work. I tend to stay away from these types of purchases because I prefer a more hands off approach to my app investing.
Conclusion
These aren’t all the strategies I use when adding to my app portfolio. If you want full access to my tips and strategies I suggest you join my Code Life group. Please leave a comment, like and share.
Code Life Membership
- Start investing in apps and living a code life today! With your Code Life membership you will receive exclusive info from me on a monthly basis how to live a code life. This includes:
- app picks of the month
- invitation to my discord channel with a special role
- access to my weekly close entrepreneur call.
- 50% off my 1:1 consultations.
The future of investing is digital assets. Join a network of engineers, investors and visionaries to grow, network and make money with.
From: $15.00 / month
Facebook Crashed Many Sites Yesterday
For the second time this year, Facebook has caused major outages of apps across the world due to its negligence and poor code management. Due to a bug introduced into the iOS Facebook SDK, apps on iOS that used Facebook login were crashing. This included: TikTok, Tinder, Spotify and many more.
While Facebook quickly “resolved” the issue, the fact remains that this isn’t the first time nor the last time something like this will happen with large companies and their SDKs and APIs. You see the problem with relying too much on third party solutions is that you are at their mercy. If their solution breaks and you rely on it, then you are screwed with little recourse other than to wait until the engineers at said company resolve the issue. Time lost equates to dollars lost, it’s not a good look.
SDK Creep
SDK creep is exactly what happened yesterday but it doesn’t just happen when something breaks. SDK creep can happen when a new version of said SDK comes out and restricts previous functionality that may have been core to your business. It could come in the form of changes in billing or even the ultimate form of that SDK going away completely. Imagine building a million dollar app and the backbone that powers it suddenly *poof* gone! This is something every developer and software entrepreneur should consider when designing the architecture for their applications.
I am a big proponent of writing your own services when it is feasible to do so from a financial and time perspective. Not only will you not have to worry about a third party service going down, but you also have more flexibility in terms of extension, growth and use.
We are increasingly getting to the point where a few tech giants are becoming the backbone of more and more startups and small companies. We as a tech community need to make sure we don’t give up too much power before we end up with a tech oligarchy or oligopoly.
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Start Living A Code Life
The Code Life club is live! Start living a code life today by investing in websites and apps, automating your routines and taking advantage of all that technology has to offer!
Code Life App POTD
Every day I send out a group email to everyone in the group about my app pick of the day. This is an app or website that is currently for sale that I personally think is a great buy and addition to any app portfolio. I break down the reasons why I believe this app is an amazing pick.
Discord Premium Role
When you join the Code Life group you get a special premium role on my discord server and can participate in investor only discussions.
Weekly Video Calls
Every week on Sundays I have group weekly video calls with everyone in the club. During these calls I will answer any questions you all may have as well as go over monthly and quarterly group investment goals.
Programming Is Even More In Demand In 2020
If you are wanting to become a software engineer or want to expand your coding skill set in order to stay in demand then here are the top 6 programming languages you should learn for 2020. By mastering even one of these languages you can secure your marketability in the IT realm for years to come.
Python
With Python2.7 officially reaching end of life this year, Python3 is the big dawg on the block now. Python is often touted as one of the easiest languages to learn and often taught to new freshman students at universities and with good reason. Python is used in many fields ranging from scaleable web applications such as Instagram, to machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms.
Java
Java has be solidified in the game for decades now and likely is here to stay. Java is using heavily in enterprise scale web applications and to a lesser extent desktop GUI applications. Java is a truly interoperable programming language that can be used in embedded systems, web systems and mobile systems. You can also use Java to create Android applications although Kotlin is being pushed as the new language of choice.
C/C++
Ahhh my personal favorite languages C/C++. If you have an itching for system level programming such as writing operating systems, then I implore you to check out C++. It is used whenever you want bare metal efficiency and is also used highly in enterprise level video game productions such as Unreal Engine. If you want to get dirty and personal with computers, then C/C++ are your choices!
Javascript
Javascript has come a long way over the years. Javascript is used in front end web application development to create dynamic web applications. It is also used as a back end language to host web services and as a result you can use one language for a full stack web application. With the advent of web assembly we will start to see javascript used in many unconventional ways. If you have even the slightest inkling of doing web development, then Javascript needs to be on your radar.
Swift
Swift is used for creating iOS applications and is the baby of Apple. If your dream is to become an iOS developer then mastering Swift is a must. Tidbit you must own a Mac in order to do iOS development.
C#
The last language on the list goes to C#. This is the language used for creating .NET web and embedded applications. If you are a Microsoft junkie then this is the language for you. Many enterprise level companies use C# for their internal and external web operations.
You Can’t Go Wrong With Any Of These
By no means are these the only languages that you should or can learn in 2020 to get a job. I still do PHP development so there is a market for any language. However if you want a wide array of market opportunity I suggest that these be the languages that you focus on. After you get some practice with one of these languages, sign up for Triplebyte and have companies BID ON YOU based on your skillset from a one time technical coding quiz! Also if you need extra guidance on your career path book a 1-on-1 session with me and let me help you!
Horizon Radio
I had the opportunity to be interviewed by Horizon Radio, an upcoming rising radio station based out of IUS campus in New Albany Indiana. During this time we spoke about my transition into tech, what I am currently doing and what I plan for the future. Give me your thoughts and share this interview across your social media platforms.
The Queue Data Structure
Last week I talked about the stack data structure and it’s two operations push and pop. This week I talk about the queue data structure, in a lot of ways it is the opposite of a stack…sorta kinda. Any way the format will be the same.
- What is a queue
- What are its operations
- What are the run time complexities of those operations
What Is It
A queue is a data structure that is a collection of items that follows FIFO (First In First Out) order. This is the opposite of a stack which is LIFO order (Last In First Out). We see queues all the time in our everyday lives, here are a few examples:
- We are in line at a drive thru
- Listen to a playlist of songs
- Send documents to a printer
As far as programming is concerned, you would use queues whenever you want to maintain sequential order in your logic.
The Enqueue & Dequeue Operations
This data structure only has two main operations: Enqueue and Dequeue.
The enqueue method takes an item and puts it at the bottom of a collection. Since accessing a collection has constant runtime the run time analysis of the enqueue operation is O(1).
The dequeue method takes the top element of a collection and removes it from that collection. Once again since accessing a collection has a constant runtime this means the dequeue method has a runtime analysis of O(1) as well.
Conclusion
The queue data structure is simple in its theory and implementation. Like its counterpart the stack, it is used when order matters in your algorithms. For a helpful guide to Big O notation check out my study guide and support this blog! If you have any questions please feel free to comment below.
Job Hunting In Tech Isn’t Always Easy
That’s why it sucks when you lose your job and have to start the hunt all over again. You start to get wrapped up in resumes and technical interview prep to the point of paralyzing anxiety. You go through round after round after round and get turned down repeatedly during which time impostor syndrome starts to kick in and you wonder was this the right career path for you, Does any of this sound familiar to you? I can tell you it has happened to me. There is no shame in it.
As I have gone through my #CodeLife journey I have had periods where work was abundant to the point where I could sub contract parts and hire help. I have also experienced bouts of drought and financial hardship. It is in these times of famine where I learned the most about time and resource management and efficiency. During periods where I was searching for work I developed a stategy for not only maximizing my time searching for opportunities but also my sanity.
The Work You Do When You Are Not Working Is As Important As The Work You Do While Working
Read that title again slowly and digest what I am saying. If your goal is to try to find an employer in 2020 you have to put yourself out there. If you are not out on social media promoting yourself you are behind the curve. Make sure you have a website and your up to date resume is on there (save it on Google Drive and just link to that) use your website as a brand and let it be known on social media.
You know the vast majority of software engineering jobs are going to give you a technical interview. Spend some time while you are doing job hunting to learn and understand data structures and algorithms. In my opinion the best way to learn is:
- Read/watch videos
- do a small program dedicated to implementation of data structure/algorithm
- Write a README.md file explaining what you did and how it works
- upload to Github,com
By sticking to this you have complimented your learning with content creation. Employers love to see auto didactic engineers as well as content creators because that shows you don’t mind helping others.
Don’t Seek Them Out Have Them Seek You Out
In this day and age you as a software engineer shouldn’t have to put in a ton of groundwork to get a request for an interview. With websites like TripleByte which allow you to take ONE technical coding quiz and hundreds of companies can choose to hire you. One interview to rule them all! LinkedIn and Twitter are always full of discussions from hiring managers, etc about looking for new talent to augment their team so hop in those conversations.
Hopefully these suggestions help you not only in your job hunt but in your overall engineer growth. If you have any questions please leave them as a comment on this article or on the Youtube video. Lastly be sure to subscribe to my newsletter for updates, tips & tricks and more!
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