Stumbling around the internet today I noticed that there is a resounding movement toward the usage of UML diagraming applications. I agree that these programs like Microsoft Visio are cool and a required tool of most business development cycles, but they are a waste of time. There hasn’t been anything that can replace the tried and true methodology of diagramming on paper. Visio can never add enough features to match a developers artistic skills. So here I am to teach you in the next two paragraphs how to take an idea and turn it into code the easiest way possible.

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In the first part of this two part article, I discussed a high level overview of the entire interview process. Now, as promised, I will discuss the types of technical questions that are commonly asked during the interviews.

When interviewing for any software development position, the most important quality for the interviewer to find out is your development skills. They will first look at your resume and begin to work off of that. Prep work begins by reviewing your own resume and making sure that anything listed on there is correct. If you listed something like C++, but have not programmed anything in C++ for the last few years, it is best to give yourself a high level review on a wikipedia article.
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With the announcement of Facebook picking up another Google employee, one has to begin to ask the question if Facebook is selecting these candidates just based on admiration for the company. I am sure that all those hired from Google are qualified for the positions they received with Facebook, but the latest announcement is that Facebook has nearly 20 Google employees. From a team building standpoint this sends up a big red flag. The goal on building any business team is diversity. The diversity of a team ensures that no decisions will go unchallenged and thus unrefined. There have been countless occurrences of companies picking up too many similar personalities, losing focus on their audience, and then eventually losing market share.

Now, picking up employees from Google is not a bad idea don’t get me wrong, however there has to be some sort of limit. If I was to pick up 20 Yahoo employees to run my site they would have a tendency to direct the site in a similar direction as Yahoo. Each company has the tendency to hire similar personality types. It takes a good leader to know when there are too many similar employees already and to bring in a fresh perspective. After seeing Facebook’s hiring approach, I cannot help but question whether they have considered this basic team building principle. Not to mention the high cost that Facebook is paying to pick up these ex-Google employees. Is it wise or is it simply Facebook’s desire to be Google?

I stumbled onto a post showing pictures of different internet startups. The startups all have different office themes from collaborative spaces to more traditional offices. It just shows that your work environment isn’t as important as some developers lead you to believe. Some of today’s most social sites don’t have the Google approach and are doing better than those who are. As a developer it is more important to look at your team rather than the environment your working in. Tailor your environment around the team and modify it until everyone is comfortable. This also applies to entering an existing company. Go with the people, not the environment or you may end up with a real sweet office but people you absolutely despise.

I discussed in a previous post some of the effective tactics needed to find the perfect dream job. That is really only part of the story. At some point you are going to have to interview for the position and the entire interview process can be pretty demanding for a software development position. So what should you expect? In general, the company will want to do a preliminary phone interview to gain a quick feeling of your personality, background, and oral skills. If you get passed the phone stage then a congratulations is in order.
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Any developer strives to become a reputable and respected member of the development community. Exactly how you go about earning this title is shrouded in mystery. After asking a handful of the prominent Ruby community developers, I realized that even the developers who have earned this title do not know how they did it. Many suggest that posting on forums and sitting in community IRC channels will do the trick. For those who have tried this strategy, including myself, it will provide nothing but countless hours wasted. After some analysis, I have come up with a more effective strategy when it comes to building your developer network and earning a title among your peers.

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Twitter has launched the rumor mill about a possible decision to abandon the Ruby on Rails framework. The decision comes as no surprise to anyone who has followed Twitter since its inception. The Rails framework has never experienced the kind of stress and load testing that Twitter has put it up against. The test have not always been successful which is apparent by their three day outage surrounding the Macworld event this year. As a result of these outages, employees at Twitter have been known to speak out about the work that needs to be done on the framework in order to allow applications on a large scale. These comments have been harshly received by Rails founder, DHH.

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It is about time someone listed out a list of the most valuable private web startups. Even if this list is highly arbitrary it gives you an idea of how a simple concept can turn a huge profit. This goes back to my previous article about building a business model for developers. After reading the article, I do find some of those numbers hard to believe like the value of Digg.

Graduating from college is such a refreshing moment. It is the first day of the rest of your life and most want to start it off with a bang. Well what could be better than leaving academia for that dream job that kept you going on those all night study sessions. Unfortunately, leaving academia was the easy part and finding that dream job will prove to be the fight of your life. I know this from first hand experience.

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Over at Socialized Software, they have posted an interesting article arguing that open source developers are better marketers than other developers. They use sites like Twitter and Automattic (Wordpress) as these types of companies. I agree that both of these companies are driven by excellent marketing strategy. However, I have a disenting opinion when it comes to having a profit maximizing business. At the end of the day, it is all good and well to have a site the community enjoys because it does not cost anything. The problem becomes when you want to expand your brand, the company needs some capital in order to execute the expansion. Where do they get this money from? Well the typical strategy is to turn it into a Free / Pro structure and hope people feel obligated to upgrade their account. By doing this however, the company is no longer considered “open source” because they offer a pay product. Usually these transitions come with a little slight of hand and most users still consider them an open source product when in fact they technically are not. Read More