Month: June 2021

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Featured IT Consultants Job search advice

IT Job Hunting Done Well: A Step-by-Step Guide

This IT job hunting guide will provide you with a review of everything you will need to consider in your journey towards your next professional milestone.
This IT job hunting guide will provide you with a review of everything you will need to consider in your journey towards your next professional milestone.

These are prime days for IT job hunting. As industries like commercial aviation are going through the darkest days of their history, tech-related businesses are thriving. From entertainment platforms and social networks to online retail and videoconferencing services. Some companies are simply very well-positioned to take advantage of our society’s sudden change of habits.

Enterprise cloud companies have stepped up recruiting to meet the increased global demand for cloud services. Meantime retailers are hiring in mass to meet the demand for online shopping and home deliveries. It is a golden age for technology professionals, and you should take all the advantage you can of it.

This IT job hunting guide will provide you with a review of everything you will need to consider in your journey towards your next professional milestone.

IT Job IT Job Hunting Done Well: A Step-by-Step Guide:

IT job hunting in today’s jobs market

The IT skills gap is rapidly widening as new technologies emerge at an increasing rate and change the way firms operate. For this reason, most recruiters, predictably, name a skills shortage as their top challenge. The scarcity of skilled individuals raises salaries and empowers those with the most in-demand abilities. And so, new skill niches are continuously emerging. Consequently, IT professionals need to stay up to date with new developments if they want to remain relevant.

Learn more about today’s IT jobs market

IT job hunting in today's jobs market

IT Job Hunting: The right IT job for you

Certainly, outlining the greatest professional route for you based on your requirements and objectives is an art, and like any other kind of art, you must first learn the fundamentals.

Firstly, you’ll have to decide what kind of assignments you wish to do and pick the right firm and industry. Then you should describe your skillset and position yourself in relation to the tasks you wish to pursue. Finally, you will need to present a clean and consistent image.

Here is more on how to find the best IT jobs.

Building your specialist profile

As an IT professional, you must always lookout for new top IT skills to stay current and grow your career. However, with the ongoing growth of IT tools and the changing business climate brought on by the pandemic, deciding where to spend your upskilling efforts might be tough.

Building your specialist profile

Technical knowledge must be updated on a regular basis to keep with current business trends, while softer skills like communication and time management are lifetime assets. The development of data science, the introduction of artificial intelligence, and the strong momentum of cloud computing are all having an impact on the most in-demand IT professionals.

The solution? To familiarise yourself with today’s top IT skills.

The art of CV writing

Once your professional profile and skills are all set up and running, it’s time to make them all come together in a well-rounded CV.

The CV is an essential component of every job seeker’s arsenal, particularly in today’s ultra-competitive IT employment market. These IT professional CV writing ideas can help you stand out from the crowd and land interviews with the finest organizations and positions in the field.

An excellent resume is a succinct and clear summary of your work history, personality, and goals. Because this is the recruiter’s or employer’s first impression of you, you should make it count

Want to know how? Check out our CV writing tips.

IT Job Hunting: The art of CV writing

Improve your online visibility

First impressions are essential in the online job-hunting environment, just as they are in face-to-face conversations.

After a company or recruiter first identifies a candidate who might be a good fit for the position; they will conduct a thorough review of their digital footprint. Any inconsistencies and red flags found will be taken into account before moving onto the next stage of the process. On the other hand, an insufficient online presence might prevent a candidate from being found in the first place.

It is important that, as an IT professional, you work improve your image and boost your online visibility.

IT Job Hunting: Improve your online visibility

IT job hunting

Skills, check, CV, check. Now it’s time to go out and hunt for a job.

There is no single way of looking for a job. No single platform you should prioritise or sole strategy you should follow. It all depends on your profile, the kind of job you are targeting, and your personal style. Only one thing is true across the board: you have to be smart about it.

You will need to do some research; figure out where your desired employers get their talent from; approach the right people within the industry or organisation and use the right language.

Need more tips? Here’s how to find a job in IT.

Remote IT job hunting and work

Any job hunting guide that wants to stay relevant in a post-world should cover remote hiring and working.

Remote work is becoming increasingly common amongst IT pros. The way in which tech experts look for jobs and carry out missions was already changing before Covid-19 hit. IT freelancing was on the rise; With higher levels of remote work; slowly becoming an industry standard and the figure of the digital nomad gaining acceptance.

Remote IT job hunting and work

Remote employment across nations and time zones has become the norm now that digital transformation initiatives have advanced and organizations have been forced to adapt their hiring tactics to a world in lockdown. Remote employment is here to stay, regardless of country reopenings and a delayed return to the workplace.

But remote working and remote job hunting require a slightly different set of skills of involve different priorities and best practices.

That is why you will need to learn all the details of how to work on remote.

IT Job Hunting: Interview preparation

Interview preparation

Interviews are the final show of the job hunting world. And often the part of the process that most anxiety and self-doubt generates. The rise of remote hiring and the subsequent normalisation of online interviews makes this step particularly challenging; as traditional recommendations regarding non-verbal communication no longer apply to the likes of Zoom.

Also read our article about Top 10 In-Demand Tech Skills

Selection procedures may be intimidating, especially when it comes to first interviews. Even if you’re a seasoned pro who believes you’ve got interviewing all under contol; it never hurts to take a second look at how you handle these pivotal moments and see where you can improve. Common sense, like in the case of so many other things in life, can be quite beneficial.

Make sure yo check our tips on how to prepare for an IT job interview.

Onboarding

Congrats! You have gotten the job. The company or client that hired you is clearly excited about what you have to bring to the team. But do not let yourself think that the journey is over yet.

Onboarding is a crucial step in securing your job position and can well determine the impact and effectiveness of your work within this new environment. From properly getting to know your colleagues and your team’s structure to identifying internal workflows and collaboration tools. Therefore, what you learn in those first two weeks is key to ensuring you can give the best you have to offer and remain aligned with business objectives.

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This often requires proactiveness on your part. Sometimes, your new employer will not have the time or resources to properly provide you with a welcome package right away. In these cases, you should take the lead and ask for everything you need in order to do a good job. Don’t be shy. Your employer or client will thank you, and it will show initiative, professionalism and commitment.

Working with a recruitment partner like Mindquest can be of great advantage in difficult onboarding situations. As expert recruiters tend to have good knowledge of the project you have been hiring for and know the company well. They will then be able to orient you through the process with minimum effort on your part.

Interested in hearing about onboarding tips from an IT professional who just recently started a new job? Then, check out our interview with Olena Drugalya to discuss her experiences at her first developer job.

IT Job Hunting: onboarding

Life-long learning

This is something you should do even if you are not looking for a job at the moment. Since technology is continuously evolving, your success as an IT pro depends in great part on your ability to keep up with the most in-demand skills – both technical and other, softer skills.

Therefore, you need to take advantage of the many free online IT courses out there. Here are five courses to get you started that touch upon some of today’s core AI skills. Develop new skills, challenge yourself. Include your new certifications in your CV and LinkedIn profiles. It will show employers you’re not just standing there, idle, that you are also ambitious and in constant motion.

Need more tips on life-long learning? Check out our article about the importance of continuing education.

IT Job Hunting: Life-long learning

Seeking a recruiter’s help

While it is frequent for technology experts to be overwhelmed by generic offers from recruiters who do not understand their area of technological focus and personal idiosyncrasies. There are great recruiters out there.

To conclude, specialized IT recruiters can become a life-long career partner for technology professionals looking for a steady income of work and guidance to navigate an ever-changing and fast-evolving job market. Consider working with a partner like Mindquest to easily take your career to the next level, saving time and at no cost to you.

Find more about our recruitment and career services here.

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About us Featured Growing your career: permanent & freelance IT Consultants Podcast Interviews

A Career in Data Science: Unlocking The Power of Data with AI

A Career in Data Science: Unlocking The Power of Data with AI
A Career in Data Science: Unlocking The Power of Data with AI

We chat with Ton Badal, machine learning engineer at London-based DataOps start-up Synthesized; about pursuing a career in data science and the challenges of working with data.

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Check out more of our interviews from our podcast episodes.

How did you get started in tech, what made you go for data science career and machine learning in particular?

Since school, I have had an engineering mentality, I’ve always had this problem-solving way of thinking. I’ve always enjoyed math and solving problems. In university, I studied telecommunications engineering and specialised in audiovisual systems, so the processing of audio, images, video and other audiovisual systems from a technical perspective.

There I started doing research in machine learning, AI and data science. I started discovering this super interesting world. After that, I was sure that I wanted to do a data science career. So I went for a master’s in AI. And that’s how I discovered this very, very interesting and challenging world.

What did you find to be the most challenging part of this process of learning data science as career and becoming a machine learning engineer?

When I started university, it was not a clear path yet. Eighteen or fifteen years ago, you couldn’t see the path of a data scientist from start to end. Data science sits between computer science and math. And, throughout my career, I’ve been closer to computer science than to math. But the challenge is that you have to know as much as possible from both worlds. But at the same time combine them as well as possible. So I think it’s been quite challenging to be able to unify both worlds.

What’s the best career advice you have ever been given?

This is not really a piece of advice that someone has given me, but rather something that I’ve seen people do. I’ve realised that, when I was starting to look for jobs and was looking for a career, I was kind of looking for anything. I felt like I was the only one selling myself. But at some point, you realise that it’s important that the company also sells itself to you. The company also has to be interested in the person who’s applying. It’s not just top-down, but also bottom-up. There has to be this mutual understanding. When I started looking for jobs, I didn’t care that much about that. But after a while, I realised that it’s really important to feel confident and be in a good environment. It’s crucial for your career development and for example a data science career.

So, I would recommend to everyone to not just get the first job and be very selective about what they want and what they seek to accomplish. Also, the people who interview you: you have to look at them and ask as many questions as you can about the company. It’s not only about selling yourself, but also about understanding the company and making sure that the step you’re going to take is the best one for you because that’s going to influence the rest of your career.

CV Writing Tips for IT Professionals

What’s your advice for those who want to learn data science?

If you want to learn something, the best way to learn it is to get hands-on, to find a project that you’re interested in. There are a lot of open source projects that require some help. For example, at Synthesized, we’re now going to open source a fairness package. If you’re interested in this field, you can collaborate on many, many different projects. The best way to learn computer science and data science is to get a project, get a data set. Sign up for a Kaggle Competition, for example, and try to solve it and get as close as you can to the top of the ranking.

Need tips on how to find a job in IT? Check out our IT job hunting guide.

What are the biggest issues with working with data these days?

First of all, there is the problem of ending up with a poor signal-to-noise ratio. The amount of data that you can find nowadays is huge. But, many times, this data contains a lot of noise. And, if you are not careful, you are just going to end up with just a lot of noise that renders it useless. 

The second big issue is compliance, so GDPR, HIPAA, etc. If you have data that is not privacy-compliant or that is discriminating against some groups, that’s going to be not only useless, but it’s also going to be illegal to use. So you need to work closely with compliance teams. You need to spend time with the legal team to make sure that you make proper use of your data. 

Finally, there’s the problem of data sets becoming data silos. More and more, to access data, you need a data engineer, a data scientist or a machine learning engineer — someone who can do the magic with the data. It’s getting more and more complex to access the data because doing so requires the knowledge of a data engineer or a test engineer. 

How is Synthesized helping to solve these problems?

Synthesized has a core engine that is able to solve these problems by enabling users to easily access their data products in many different ways. So, for example, let’s take one of the problems that I was mentioning before: working with compliance and privacy. Our engine is able to generate data that is representative of the original data but is free from privacy issues and from even biases. 

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Another of the problems is related to infrastructure, to data silos. Current approaches are data warehouses and data lakes. There are some problems with these approaches, for example, the signal-to-noise ratio in the case of data lakes. There’s a lot of data in there, but it’s very difficult to use. But, the infrastructure problem is also there because the data is very centralised and you need a data engineering team to get to it. So what we’re working on is a new infrastructure called data mesh that aims to decentralise data access. It tries to decentralise all these data products so that each team can access the data independently. Both for internal and for external collaboration.

Can you tell us a bit more about your role at the company?

I’m very lucky to have been a very early employee of the company. I joined at a very early stage, and this meant that, although my official title is machine learning engineer, I’ve been able to touch a bit of everything. 

However, my main role as a machine learning engineer is making sure that the core technology is as good as possible. But that also involves a lot of what a pre-sales person would do. So, going to the clients, asking them for requirements, and making sure that the product works well for them and is as tailored as possible to their requirements. But about also improving the product. 

And there is also some marketing work involved, like developer relationships. We need to push into that direction because we’re a small company with very new technology and we need to make sure that we sell bottom-up, not top-to-bottom. We approach customers as machine learning engineers, as the nerds who sell to other developers, not as the marketing guys who are trying to sell something to them. Otherwise,+j the message doesn’t get through that well.

What’s next for data? Where do you see data science in, let’s say, five years from now?

I think that, right now, we’re in a very crucial moment for data. We are having all these privacy issues, fairness problems, and the users are more and more aware of this. So, we have to make sure that we have the best practices in place, that we make the best that we can with our data but still respect users. It’s going to be a very challenging time. 

At Synthesize, we mainly work with structured data, but I think it’s worth mentioning unstructured data. What’s happening with OpenAI, GPT-3 or other generative models — what’s being done is amazing. It’s a very exciting time. I’m very, very excited to see what the next new thing is going to be.

You’ve been based in London for a while. What do you like the most about the London tech scene?

What I like the most about it is that there are a lot of people working on the same topic, and you can very easily meet people doing really interesting things. And that’s one of the most powerful things when you are doing research or trying to improve your product. Just talking to people, understanding their problems and just having a conversation about something that probably you don’t understand and you don’t even know about. 

Discussing new tech trends with people at other companies, that can really help. You discover new things and go out of your usual boundaries. London is great for that because there are a lot of meetups. Well, there were before corona. But yeah, you can talk to and meet a lot of people. There’s this big ecosystem where a lot of things are happening and there’s so much to learn. I’m really happy to be living here.

Join our community and find your next job or expert in IT

You can follow Ton on LinkedIn and on Twitter.

Looking for a job in IT? Check out our IT job hunting guide.

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Job Descriptions Web Developer

Android Developer: Job Description

Android Developer
A look at the role of the Android Developer. Learn all about the required skills, background, and main duties of this position in our job description.

Use our template to create a compelling and comprehensive Android Developer job description to attract top talent.

Mobile technology is growing exponentially in our society, which is why the profession of the Android Developer keeps attracting growing interest.

A competitor to Apple’s iOS, Android is Google’s mobile operating system and can be found in a multitude of smartphones, tablets and other connected objects. Many developers, therefore, choose to work on Android.

But what are the qualities and skills required to position for these booming job offers? How can one become an Android Developer? And also, what level of compensation can you expect from this type of work? Find the answers in our job description.

Also discover our special guide: IT Job Hunting Done Well: A Step-by-Step Guide

Android Developer: the job

The role of the Android Developer is to develop applications for all devices that run on this mobile operating system. As can be done with iOS and the Swift Developer.

Drafting of the specifications

The first step in the job is to analyse the client’s specifications and define the most appropriate technical solution. This is an essential part of starting a project, as it makes it possible to understand the objectives of the project and determine the development plan to be put in place.

Application development and testing phases

Then comes the stage of programming the application in accordance with the rules and constraints of the specifications. It is also in this second part of the process that the developer will carry out series of tests to verify that the functionalities meet the specifications and that they will meet the needs of the end-user.

Application submission and technical monitoring

In the event that the project consists of developing an application; once the programming is complete; the Android Developer is required to submit their project to Google Play; Google’s application store; and to correct any bugs that the application can run into afterwards. They must also ensure that they document their work to ensure proper transmission of information to other members of the IT team.

Required Skills

Have a solid knowledge of the mobile environment

Before even talking about the skills specific to the Google operating system, the developer must know all the challenges of the mobile web. They must know how to use the programming languages live ​​Java and Kotlin. But also have knowledge of other languages ​​such as C ++ and the Native Development Kit.

Being in the know regarding Android developments

A good Android Developer must always be up-to-date on the evolution of mobile technologies. And more particularly on the updates of the Android operating system to maintain their level of performance and to always the best solutions.

Mastery of English

Fluency in English is often required and allows the developer to understand different programming languages. As these are based on the English language.

Salary of the Android Developer

The average daily rate for an Android Developer is generally between 300 and 800 euros. It varies greatly depending on the level of experience and technical expertise.

Training and education of the Android Developer

There is no traditional training to becoming an Android Developer. A computer science university degree is often useful to acquire the basics of programming. However, it is possible to become an Android Developer on a self-taught basis.

Discover all the Web development programming skills and professions and the Best Android Bloggers, Experts, and Influencers to Follow in 2022

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Want to discover another job description? Learn more about the role of Swift Developer.

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About us Featured IT Consultants Podcast Interviews Tips for your daily life as a freelancer

How To Code Well: Taking Breaks and Other Pieces of Timeless Career Advice

How To Code Well: Taking Breaks and Other Pieces of Timeless Career Advice
Peter Fisher, host of the popular How To Code Well podcast, discusses why he started teaching coding and some of the best career advice he has given.

Peter Fisher; freelance web developer and host of the popular “How To Code Well” podcast; discusses why he started teaching coding and some of the best career advice he has given.

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How to code well

How did you get into web development?

I never actually wanted to be a programmer. I actually started off from an arts background. So I did a lot of graphics design and a lot of 3D animation. We did a lot of flash animation and action script coding, so the coding came alongside the multimedia stuff.

When I was at school, I was building small little websites for myself and friends just to post images on. And I found it interesting that one could build something with really small feedback loops. All you had to do was write some HTML code and refresh the page and you had something.

And then when I got my first job in a web development agency, I discovered very quickly that I wasn’t actually a graphics designer as more of a coder. So, I was able to transfer my passion for design to a passion for designing and architecture.

You are the host and teacher of How To Code Well. A podcast and learning hub around web development and pursuing a web developer career. How did this adventure start?

I never started How To Cope Well with the intention of building a business from it or being a creator. It was a purely accidental thing that I got into. I always started blogging when I started learning because that was my way of keeping note. But I was writing to myself rather than to others.

After I finished university, I was in this ocean of developers who’ve just come out of university, and they were all looking for the same jobs. I was speaking to a lot of recruitment agents, and one of them, off the cuff, said “I wish there was a way I could show our clients how well you can code.” This was like 2006-2007, so YouTube was just coming out. And I thought: “You know, that’s something people is starting to use more, so I will video myself doing some code.” It was a very selfish decision. It was never intended to teach anyone how to code, it was just to show how I coded, so I could have called it How Well I Code rather than How To Code Well.

But then you decided to focus on helping others. What changed?

At first, I did about four videos and posted the links up onto my CV, but I very much doubted that anybody would actually see those videos from a job perspective. So, I forgot about it for a few years and didn’t bother logging back into YouTube.

Then one of my family members wanted to post or share a video for other family members. And I just thought “Oh yeah, I’ve got this YouTube account.” So, I logged in and, after several years of it being dormant, I noticed that there was a ton of comments and questions and feedback which were all very positive. I thought this was something I could run with, and it went from the very selfish decision of promoting myself to helping people out. People on YouTube were asking if I knew how to do other things, how to use other programming languages, where the next part of the course was. The funny thing is that I never thought it was a course when I did it. The driving force of How To Code Well is its community.

What was the most challenging part of starting to produce educational content on a regular basis?

I was a junior dev working a full-time job with freelance work on the side, and I was now teaching people to code, so time was and is a thing that is against me.

I’ve got a very strict rule of not doing it during working hours, so it’s evenings and weekends, and over several years I’ve managed to keep that going. But there’s a lot of sacrifices one has to make. For instance, if I live code on YouTube on Tuesdays after work, my working day is prolonged, and my downtime is shorter. If I live code on Twitch on Sundays, my Sunday afternoons are out of the water. And there’s a lot of preparation that you have to do before you do that. You need to think about what it is that you’re going to code and talk about.

What about impostor syndrome. Do you experience it yourself? How do you address it?

Impostor syndrome is something that is definitely real, and with the podcast that came through accident as well. I started doing long-form content where I was touching upon subjects that I didn’t know much about. It got to a point where I was getting to the limits of my knowledge, and I just decided to bring people on the show to learn from them. It’s always a learning journey, always knowing where my limitations are.

With every course I build, I think that I’ve done the wrong thing, if I’ve said the wrong technical thing. You know, if I’ve pronounced an acronym wrong. You’re constantly doubting yourself. It does get easier because you get used to that feeling and you can have a little word with yourself and say “It’s fine. It’s okay, you can publish it.”

You’ll never truly know how the audience is going to react until you publish it. So, every doubt that you’ve got in your mind is just your doubts. It’s not the doubts of others. I think that’s how I get through it.

Speaking to people on the podcast who know about the subject matter, I do come away feeling like I know nothing. I know what they’ve said because I’ve understood what they said, but it just makes me aware of how little I know of web development, which is another reason why web development is so good, because there is so much to know and so much to learn, it’s endless. You’ll never learn everything.

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In your experience, what makes a good web developer versus a great one?

From a technical standpoint, a good web developer knows the syntax and the processes. But a great developer understands the technical consequences of those processes and decisions, and they can lean upon past experiences.

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Also, a great developer is highly professional. They know when to say no and they have justifications of why they’re going to say no. They have testing, they know how long things are going to take, they have some experience behind what they’re doing. They’ve seen it from inception to deployment, and they’ve gone through the whole bug fixing cycle. But really, I think what boils it down is experience. You can’t just learn to be a great developer, you must embrace it and experience it.

Based on what you have seen through your courses, what are most developers struggling with these days?

Not understanding core programming concepts is something that I see a lot, so knowing the framework but not understanding the core principles of the programming language behind that. Learning the concepts of programming is a transferable skill. I’m not just talking about learning JavaScript or learning PHP or Python. It’s learning the operators, the logical flows, learning what a function is versus what a class is. All of those things you can take with you to the next programming language.

What I see a lot is people diving into frameworks and then getting stuck when they move to another position or another job, or when that framework changes. They are comfortable in that world, but they’re not comfortable in the world outside of that framework.

What’s the best web developer career advice you have given?

First of all

Take breaks. Take more breaks than you think you need to. Your brain works offline, so even if you’re not physically at your machine, you’re thinking about the work. I think about the work when I wake up and when I go to bed. I never switch off in terms of thinking about the bugs that I need to fix or the logical flows, but because I’m not staring at a screen, I’m not getting stressed about it. I’m processing this information in my brain in the background. And, when you come back to the code, it’s easier to identify the issue that you are in.

The second one

The second one is to keep asking questions. Web development is super hard and it’s going to get harder. You think you know it now, but, in two years’ time, you’ll know two years’ worth of it, and then you’ll discover another two years that you don’t know. There’s more stuff in web development that I don’t know than there is that I do know, and I’ve been in it for a long, long time. Don’t beat yourself up and if you don’t understand what you’re trying to achieve, then ask someone. And, if you don’t understand what that person is saying, ask someone else, because perhaps that person hasn’t talked about the answer in a way that you can absorb. Maybe you are more of a visual learner. Maybe they can show you on a whiteboard or take you through the process. Throwing acronyms at someone isn’t a very useful thing, is it?

Lastly

Lastly, technology comes and goes. At university, I studied visual basic and action script. Well, action script is for Flash. Flash is never used. And visual basic, I just wouldn’t even know. I did well in that course, but I’ve never used it. What I’m trying to say is that technology comes and goes, and whatever you learn now probably won’t be the thing that you will be learning in 10 years’ time or doing in 10 years’ time. So, what you need to do is accept that and embrace change, but don’t embrace change every five minutes.

And the only thing would add is to just enjoy it. Don’t get too stressed with it all. It’s a very challenging thing, and I find that, the more I get stressed, the more I dislike it. So, once you find that you’re actually getting stressed and frustrated with something, take a breather, take a couple of hours. The code will still be there tomorrow, so take an evening off.

Check out more of our interviews from our podcast episodes.

How To Code Well is a video podcast which is live on YouTube every Thursday at 20:00 BST. The audio version is released every Friday and is a week behind the live show. You can find it on iTunes, Spotify and most other podcast platforms.

You can follow How To Code Well through its website, on YouTube (Live every Tuesday @ 17:30 BST and Thursday @ 20:00 BST for the podcast) and on Twitch (live every Sunday @ 14:30 BST).

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IT Infrastructure Job Descriptions

SOC Analyst: Job Description

SOC Analyst: Job Description
The role of the SOC (Security Operation Center) analyst is to monitor a company's information systems.

Use our template to create a compelling and comprehensive SOC Analyst job description to attract top talent.

The role of the SOC (Security Operation Center) analyst is to monitor a company’s information systems. They must detect all suspicious and malicious activity on computer networks, whether they come from the inside or the outside.

In a world where cyberattacks are increasingly present, this role has become essential.

SOC Analyst: the job

Risk prevention

As the first step in their intervention, the SOC analyst must do risk prevention. They must play an evangelising role within the organization, communicating with employees around cyber risks and providing users with best practices for IT security.

Interpret and process alerts

When the SOC analyst detects a security breach or malicious activity, they must determine its source and impact. Following this extensive investigative work, they must implement the most effective and rapid course of action to resolve the problem. They must then put in place mechanisms to avoid a new threat.

Monitor and keep watch

The world of cybersecurity is evolving at great speed and new threats are emerging every day. They need to keep watch on all the threats and vulnerabilities that exist, as well as on new ways to protect themselves from them. The goal? To better anticipate and respond to long-term threats.

Also read the IT Infrastructure best practices

Required Skills

IT security expertise

To be able to manage threats and find flaws in a company’s information systems, the SOC analyst must know how to use servers and security tools such as Proxies, Fireworks, antivirus, VPN.

Discover Why Use Proxies ? and What’s the Difference Between a Proxy Server & VPN ?

Mastery of computer tools and languages

When they have to fix security vulnerabilities in information systems, they have to mobilise a very broad technical set of skills. Mastering Linux, Unix or Windows, as well as the programming languages ​​on which the company’s IT systems are based is often essential. Not all companies use the same computer languages ​​or the same security systems. When starting a new position, they must quickly adapt to different languages and be able to use them all.

Communication and teamwork skills

The analyst is in constant contact with users and works across the board with all departments of the company. They must demonstrate interpersonal skills such as the ability to collaborate and share knowledge.

The SOC Analyst within the industry

The SOC analyst role is one of the most sought-after jobs in cybersecurity. Its role is essential for the proper functioning of information systems, especially in a context where attacks are more and more commonplace.

Salary

The average daily rate of a SOC analyst oscillates between €350 and €700.

Training and education

To become a SOC Analyst, it is best to have an engineering background with a specialisation in cybersecurity.

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About us Featured Podcast Interviews

How to Grow as a Front-End Developer: Soft Skills and Keeping Things Simple

How to Grow as a Front-End Developer: Soft Skills and Keeping Things Simple
How does one grow as a front-end developer? We chat with Vasilika Klimova, senior front-end developer at Avaloq and founder of the SkillUp School.

How does one grow as a front-end developer? We chat with Vasilika Klimova, senior front-end developer at Avaloq and founder of the SkillUp School in Luxembourg, about why soft skills and not over-engineering are key to advancing as a front-end dev and in your web developer carer.

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How to grow as a front-end developer

Why did you decide to go into web development? What’s your web developer career story?

Actually, web development wasn’t my first choice at all. I have been playing video games since I was three years old, and, at first, my idea was to become a game developer. I studied C and C++ at university. You can get into this industry through OpenGL and all this stuff but, in Tver, my city of origin in Russia, we didn’t have any jobs for students in this area. So, I found some web development vacancies and decided to try it, and by the fourth year of university I got my first job as a web developer as a Webmaster. So, I started from scratch.  

After working there for several years, I finished my university degree and moved Moscow. Then I had to decide if I wanted to go for back-end or front-end, as before I was full-stack. I was doing server code, business logic, all requests to the servers and database stuff, but also user interface. I did all of it. In Moscow there are bigger companies, and these usually have different web development teams, teams for front-end and teams for back-end. So, at this point I needed to decide: do I go as a back-end PHP developer, or as a JavaScript front-end developer? And I went for front-end because I’m a visual person. I need to see what I’m doing, and, when you work with a server, you usually look at the terminal and you see just code and not a lot of interfaces.

And what came next? You now live in Luxembourg. Why the change? What are you up to these days?

I’m actually in Luxembourg because of my previous job. I was a Front-End Team Lead at Artec 3D, a company that has offices in Moscow, Luxembourg, China and California, doing user interfaces and 3D-related tasks. After five years, I decided to switch and was approached by Avaloq’s HR department. They do banking software; it’s quite common to work in the banking industry in Luxembourg.

Avaloq is a much bigger company, and banking quite a regulated industry. Did you notice any differences as a front-end dev?

So, I went from a 200-people company to a 2,500 thousand one with 30 offices around the world. And some processes are not as fast.

Before, when I needed to ask someone within the company for something, I just went directly to them and asked them. But Avaloq has around 800 people at its main office in Switzerland. If you need some information, there are a lot of different teams, and you really need to investigate. For example, sometimes you are working on a project, and you need to find the people who wrote the code in the first place. And often, the only way to know who did this code is to look at who committed it. Coders and managers change, and the only way to find the author of the code is through the commit.

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And besides your job, you also work on some web projects, do consulting and give private lessons for adults and children. You are also the founder of SkillUp School, a school that teaches technical skills and how to advance your front-end web developer career. Tell us a bit more.

Yes. I started being a teacher and mentor for front-end development in 2015. I taught at schools in Russia, both online and offline. And after I had settled in Luxembourg and finally had some time in my hands, I decided to create SkillUp School, as I hadn’t seen that many schools like this in the country.

What we give to our students is this absolutely modern way of looking at front-end technologies, because as professional front-end developers, we are using them every day. We started in 2019. We don’t have too many students, and our main idea is to be very flexible for our students. People who want to change their career usually already have a job and not that much time to invest in their development. We only have two or three teams per year, so not big groups, and we are very flexible. It helps us take an individual approach to each student, and I often become even friends with them. After the course, I keep helping them grow and with any questions they have.

In your experience, what makes a good vs. a great web developer?

I think I started to think more about this when I became a team leader. Good developers can think from a technical standpoint, but a great developer, in addition to the technical aspect, knows how to take more of a business perspective. The main idea behind our job is to deliver something that makes our clients happy. You need to think about the business requirements, why you have these requirements, if there may be a more efficient way to create a feature that meets them and not overengineer. You need to ask yourself “Why?” several times.

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I know some genius developers, but sometimes they end up over-engineering because they want to make something ideal, something perfect. But the business doesn’t need that. You need something now, for this and for that purpose. And you always need to keep timing in mind. If development takes more time, then you can run into problems. It’s more of the developer’s time, which results in more money. Don’t over-engineer. Relax and just keep it simple.

As a senior developer, how can more junior specialists grow as front-end developers?

To work on their soft skills, on how to learn, how to behave, work in teams, etc. If one day you’d like to become a team leader, it’s important to work on your team skills, on how to negotiate with web designers. Often developers have issues with designers because we materialise their design and they are not happy with what we created. You really need to have a grasp of some psychology basics for this.

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

I like scuba diving. I already have more than 100 dives on my back and am a rescue diver, so I could rescue someone from the water, I hope. It’s so calming and beautiful under the surface. But I don’t have enough money to do it too many times a year. Usually maximum twice per year, unfortunately. Covid-19 has made it particularly hard too.

I also like playing board games and having a nice time with friends. I still play computer and video games sometimes. Not to compete, but it’s just something that helps me relax. I am partial to games with and interesting and breath-taking plot.

Your favourite video game?

Mass Effect, the first and third ones.

Check out more of our interviews from our podcast episodes.

For more tips on how to advance your web developer career, make sure to check Vasilika’s website and follow her on Twitter, GitHub, and LinkedIn.

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About us Featured Podcast Interviews

‘If it’s Useful for You, Then It’s Useful for Someone Else’: DevRel and Creating Content for Web Devs

‘If it’s Useful for You, Then It’s Useful for Someone Else’: DevRel and Creating Content for Web Devs
What makes a successful web dev? We interview Berlin-based front-end expert Stefan Judis, who works for Contentful leading developer relations.

What’s the secret to creating content for web devs? We continue our chat with Stefan Judis, developer relations lead at Contentful, blogger and front-end expert. Here is why and how he shares what he knows and learns with the community.

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Creating content for web devs

After building a career as a front-end developer, you’re now leading developer relationsfor Contentful. What does exactly the job involve? 

Developer relations is still a fairly new field. What we see over the last decade is that a lot of technology companies. And especially the developers using these technologies have a lot of decision power. We at Contentful are one of these software providers, a headless CMS (Content Management System) that you can put anywhere. And our developer relations team doesn’t work directly on the product. We have completely separated engineering teams that are building the APIs and the product itself.

And the DevRel team is there to spread the word about Contentful but also going into the communities and helping developers with whatever they’re struggling with. And this can be Contentful related, but very often it’s also just web development related. So, what we’re doing is that we are blogging, we are building code examples, etc. And whenever we are talking to users or customers or friends; we are basically the bridge between the product and the developer communities out there.

When someone has a problem with something, our team are usually the first people that they go back to. And we’re then feeding all these things back into the process and building this trust within the developer community. So, yeah, we are blogging, speaking, writing, and hanging out on our community Slack. To connect with the people, have a little bit of fun and build cool stuff. That’s what I do for a living.

But you also enjoy creating content for web devs in your free time, right? 

Yes. Since this year, so since 2021 and the pandemic and being stuck home, I’m writing a weekly newsletter. If people are interested in random web development stuff to read on a Monday morning over their coffee… It’s usually something around 10 resources, some GitHub repositories, some music, etc. And I’m writing that every Sunday. So if you’re up for some random good stuff I thought was good over the week, people can subscribe here. 

So where do you draw the line between your personal blogging and the one you do as part of your developer relations job?

Well, when you work in DevRel, the line is very, very blurry. Where does work start and where does it end? So I usually do a lot of things on the side. Right. So I do a lot of blogging on my own blog and occasionally I do something for the Contentful blog. Lately, I am leading the DevRel team, which means that I’m not hands-on with the content that much anymore. But I’m still around and the line is very, very blurry.

When you work in these semipublic roles, it’s usually like “Oh yeah, Stefan is the Contentful guy”. And when someone writes me DM on Twitter on a Saturday because they’re struggling with something, well, I’m the last person to say “Yeah, no, it’s the weekend, not going to help you right now”. So it’s very hard to tell where it starts and ends. But I’m just really into web development and I like to share all the things that I learn and that are exciting. And that’s just what I do.

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What advice do you have for other IT pros who want to create content and share tips to help out others? How did you start creating content for web devs?

It’s hard for me to give advice, but I can say what I do. I made it a habit of writing something down or creating a video or some sort of content around things that I discover. I’m also reading a lot. I’m subscribed to a gazillion newsletters. So when on a Sunday morning, I read something and have this thought “Huh, I didn’t know that”, I put it somewhere. It could be on my own website, or it could be on Twitter. But just making this habit of constantly documenting what you’re learning helps with this whole idea that you don’t know anything about web development, because this fear is just so big.

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I have been doing this for three or four years. And what that comes down to is that I now have, I don’t know, 200, 300, 400 learnings on my own website. And these are primarily for me. So this is how it started. Because I wanted to come back a month later or six months later and look at it and say “Man. You got a lot smarter over the last six months”. But, after some time, more and more people discovered what I wrote. Because, if it’s useful for me, usually I’m not alone.

And that’s one piece of advice that I would give to people that want to start creating content or blogging. If it’s useful for you, you are usually not alone. And there is nothing like “Oh, beginner content is not useful” or “It has to be this 2,000-word, in-depth article with a lot of scientific, engineering knowledge”. That’s absolutely not the case. We have so many people joining the industry. And whenever you learn something or when someone learns something, I think it’s a very good habit to just write it down.

And then you have the greatest feeling in the world. When some people write me an email or send me a tweet tell me “Hey, Stefan, I just learned this thing. You learned that three months ago and now there’s two of us.” And that’s just beautiful because you can kind of connect the two things, helping people but also documenting your journey.

And you have even built some tools to help you and others in the learning journey, Tiny Helpers and Random MDN. Can you tell us a bit about them?

Tiny Helpers is a very simple website that I created around Christmas one and a half years ago. There are so many self-built or quick build tools that you usually cannot Google. For example, there are a lot of people that build tools for accessibility or tools for defining font sizes, but when you Google them, you will never, ever find them because they are not SEO optimised. There are not a lot of words in them. If you find them and don’t bookmark them, you will always lose them. So, I just built this little resource collection that is Tiny Helpers, and I put it online because that’s what I do.

I thought, “Well, if it’s useful for you, then it’s probably useful for someone else.” And the whole thing is open for contributions. I think I have had over 100 contributions. And there are quite a few people that just come in and say “Oh, that’s useful. I should add that to Tiny Helpers because that’s where I go to find little online tools.” And, when I’m looking for a very specific tool that I’ve seen online, I’m going there as well and it’s the same thing. If it’s useful for me, it’s usually useful for someone else.

The other project that you mentioned, Random MDN is a quick and easy Twitter bot that I built to support my learning journey. So MDN is the developer resource for Mozilla, and it is huge. There is so much knowledge in there and I just had this random thought: “Hey, it would be kind of cool if there was something that tweeted out random MDN pages. It tweets six times a day. It just grabs the sitemap from MDN, picks a random page and tweets it out. And I learn new things just because of it. Sometimes I see a tweet and I am like “Huh, I didn’t know that.” And very often this me to blogging about it, just because my own bot taught me something about web development.

Check out more of our interviews from our podcast episodes.

Follow Stefan through his blog, Twitter, GitHub, and LinkedIn.

Also discover our article: A Data Centre Migration Is About Technology and People

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Horizon 2050

Edna’s Garden – Chapter 4

Edna's Garden - Chapter 3
Follow the story of Edna's Garden. An 8-year-old girl with a passion for nature will turn the world upside down with her data experiments. By Horizon 2050.

Enter Edna’s Garden and discover how an 8-year-old girl with a passion for nature will turn the world upside down with her data models

A story by Miquel Morales.

Jumping in just now? Check out all previous chapters of Edna’s Garden.

Edna’s Garden – Chapter 4

Once the bell that signalled the end of the school day rang, Edna waited for her classmates to leave the room while pretending to review some notes from what had been a seemingly never-ending lecture about early Internet era social networks. She didn’t have to wait for long; it had been a particularly boring one, and the other kids rushed out through the door. Boring not because of the topic –Edna found it fascinating that people back then would go around posting photos of their faces with dog ear filters on– it was more a problem with Mr. Barnum’s teaching methods. The aging history teacher had a correspondingly aging way of presenting information. He barely touched the holo-node at the centre of the classroom. Instead, he insisted on bringing from home one of those old screen projectors to illustrate his lectures.

It was so unpractical, being able to show only one image at a time on one of the classroom walls as opposed to the holo-node, which displayed a personalised, interactive set of screens for every single student. But Mr. Barnum loved his gadgets, and the school loved Mr. Barnum. 

When the last classmate had left, Edna opened her bag and took out her sister’s old wristband. The unassuming bracelet displayed a holographic menu when Edna touched it. She scrolled down the various items and made sure that everything was set. Perfect. She hid the bracelet under the sweater’s sleeve and started making her way out the school’s premises.  

It had been nice of her sister to let her borrow her old band. It was way clunkier than the latest model Dad had bought her for her birthday, but it would still do the trick. As an 8-year-old, Edna was not supposed to have a wristband. After early-21st century research had proven that too many screens could negatively affect children’s development, official guidelines had been put in place to limit tech use to the essentials for kids under 10.

It was also a great way for parents to control their kids, as almost nothing could be done these days without a wristband. All serious payments required one. It also stored official identification documents and worked as the main point of contact for services ranging from cars to file exchange. Underage kids carried instead a physical ID card with very limited capabilities. As limited as their parents wanted them to be, which, in Edna’s case, was completely.  

“Well, hello, young lady. How did the day unfold, learned much?”  

Peter the butler had been waiting for Edna just outside the school gates to escort her back to the apartment. Edna could tell in his eyes that he didn’t enjoy too much his prison guard role, but he was a man of principles who did what had to be done. Thankfully, that often included not telling her Dad and Bianca about Edna’s little adventures. Unfortunately, he would not be convinced this time around. Edna’s behaviour had “crossed a line,” as Bianca had said. 

“Just that old habits never die, Peter.” Edna strolled down the street without making eye contact. Peter was good at reading her face, and she was nervous about what she was about to do.  

“Well, if you are talking about your stubbornness, young lady, I can tell you that much is true.” 

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Central Park West was packed with school kids returning home. As they made their way down the avenue, Peter and Edna had to sort through the groups of frenetic children unleashing their wildest side after a full day indoors. Edna watched how one of the groups passed a ball above the park’s wall, one half on each side of it. She saw a red-headed woodpecker resting on one the still leafless branches of one of the trees right across the fence. A rather big male for the species, or so Edna thought.

She wondered what The Pond would look like right now. Surely the flower buds had started insinuating themselves in between the plant stems. It would be Spring soon, and the ducklings were probably just about to hatch. Edna thought of her favourite duck family, a curious group made up of an older matriarch and three younger males who she had to police more often than she probably would had liked. Maybe she would have to handle a few new additions in the coming weeks. 

“To be honest, Ms. Edna, I must say I am surprised of how well you have taken this whole being grounded scenario. At first, I thought you it would take you less than a day to run away or put up some sort of fit. But I must apologise for jumping to conclusions too quick. After all, you will soon be a grownup, and you are clearly becoming more responsible and focused. In fact, I…” 

Edna was gone. She had taken advantage of the crowds that formed at the traffic lights in Columbus Square and vanished as soon as Peter directed a confused look at a young couple dressed in matching neon-lit outfits. She was now descending into the subway station, feeling a wave of excitement and anticipation as she jumped down the stairs looking over the shoulder for any signs of the butler. With no pursuer in sight, Edna crossed the station’s hall and used her sister’s wristband to access the boarding area. She tried to remember what her sister had told her. Just hold it close to the screen on top of the turnstile, on the left-hand side.  

As strange as it sounded to people whose family was of more humble means, the subway was an alien place for someone like Edna. The only subways she had ever seen were those that appeared in holo-movies and shows. Peter often said how fine and efficient the subway was, a marvel compared to the rusty, rattling subway system that was held together with scotch tape until the late 2030s. But, as far as her memory went, Edna’s only ways of transportation had been the family’s car, taxi cabs and the occasional bicycle ride around the park. No wonder she was desperate to run among the trees and get her clothes dirty with mud. She had spent her entire life in a very fancy and expensive cage. But thankfully, that cage had a little garden in it called Central Park. Or at least until Bianca got her grounded.  

Edna got herself into the first train bound for downtown and looked at the screen displaying all the stops in the line. Chinatown: 7 stops. It shouldn’t take too long. Or maybe it would take that long; Edna had no idea of how much time it took the train to go between stops. But wait. She had a wristband of her own now. She manipulated the menu until she found the answer.  

Estimated arrival time: 10 minutes. 

To be continued…

Edna’s Garden.

Discover our previous story: Nadia – Chapter I

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