Look at the below screenshot.
As I browsed Google career portal today, out of 2932 job postings, only 197 had “hands-on experience” in the job description.
That’s barely 6%.
Does it mean hands-on experience no longer matters? Quite the contrary. It’s not mentioned, because it’s given. It’s inferred. It’s an implied requirement that gets tested during the grueling interview rounds. Beyond that, it rules the Agile sprint boards.
Without hands-on experience, the software world is lame.
I have heard stories about several young and strong soldiers abandoning nicely paying military jobs, simply because they could not withstand the physical training.
Hands-on experience holds a similar…
It’s like Murphy’s law every day
Before I begin, a necessary disclaimer:
This article is about web frontend development. I am not an experienced front-end developer. Throughout my career, I have tried my hand on desktop, mobile, and backend development.
Yet, whenever there was a need to try my hand on the front end, I shivered.
I felt excited at the beginning — because the front end gives you an opportunity to see magic on the screen in the quickest possible manner — but that magic didn’t last past a few tutorial-level hands-on assignments.
Based on my ideas after my experience. here are my reasons why…
A developer preparing for an upcoming interview almost always starts with a Google search.
She would first search the questions — technical ones. Inevitably, this will be an abyss that very few programmers can come out of. It goes on forever, until the dreaded interview day.
There is no opportunity to focus on interview techniques and psychology behind every interview conversation.
Throughout the last 2 years, I wrote quite about programming interview questions, the recruitment secrets, and most importantly — interviewers’ mindsets while interviewing junior and senior programmer candidates.
Here goes a comprehensive list of everything about programming interviews, sorted…
Less is more
There was a patch in my career during which I suffered several rejections following senior developer interviews.
The preparation techniques that got me through the first 5-7 years of my career were no longer useful. The interview methods changed and I had my fair share of interview surprises that I could not overcome at times.
But even when I got all answers right, I got the dreaded rejection letter.
As I analyzed my failures, a pattern emerged.
They Were All Technical Interviews
I got all my technical tests right. My algorithms shone. My coding assignments were perfect. My tests were concise and well-covered.
The most…
It’ll help you — but not without stealing
When I was a newbie coder, I always used Microsoft Visual Studio, the best IDE in my entire software career. A lot of my peers also share this opinion.
My senior colleague always frowned upon me needing autocomplete. “I can write C++ and SQL both in DOS shell editor. I don’t even need NotePad.” He would proudly say.
We didn’t have the luxury of Stack Overflow. Though I must admit, once it was around, it was indispensable. I was a copy-paste programmer for the better part of my senior career, too. This had nothing to do with my competency. The…
You write, therefore you are.
Writing is powerful. It not only engages your audience. It also fulfills you in ways you had never imagined earlier.
Whether you write to make money, to keep a journal, or to engage with your community, writing is a necessity if you are an active content consumer. Even if you are not a natural writer, you feel compelled to write a comment on a forum or a Facebook post. In a world filled with endless content, writing saves you from powerlessness.
Everyone needs an expression. Writing is the easiest outlet.
If you are a writer, it gives you your daily…
Biased hiring in tech for dummies
Getting a job in a great software company is a goal for many.
However, past that, what do you want? Promotions are at least a year away. You need some concrete goals to sustain your growth. Earnest programmers keep learning and delivering. But ambitious programmers build ladders that they can climb.
They do it by building their network. They do it not only by making newer friends but also by favoring their older friends by bringing them inside the companies they love and work for.
Unless you are working in a very large organization (FAAMG and many secnd-rung software firms)…
Leverage your brain CPU’s idle time
Becoming a powerful programmer takes time. However, nobody wants to pay a programmer who is learning on the job and delivering minimally.
Besides, you will not get a worthwhile job without being a powerful programmer beforehand, which is a well-known catch-22 of job vs. experience.
Everyone gets 24 hours in a day. The only way to allocate more programming time without affecting your nerves, eyes, and spine is to integrate it into your daily habits.
Think of programming before and after you are at your computer. That’s the best way to minimize your time at the computer.
Do it wisely…
Apple Car is already slated in 2024. That’s not what I am talking about.
It’s neither the phone with curved glass nor an out-of-the-world AR headset. Those are the things already announced. Again, I wouldn’t categorize them as big yet, given Apple’s last-minute secrecy around future product releases.
A New Hardware? (maybe not)
But it must be innovative enough, for sure.
After Steve’s demise, the word has been out that innovation had died in Apple. Nothing could be farther from the truth, though. Apple’s product line was the result of decade-long planning. Every release, planned surrounding a flashy marketing event, was micro-created to maximize profits.
…
