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5 Tips to socialize in a remote work setting

Posted on July 15, 2022 by seoteam

With COVID-19 re-openings underway, many offices are allowing employees to work from home permanently. To facilitate remote work interaction, such organizations are implementing strategies and taking actions to bring coworkers together deliberately. Managers organizing activities like virtual water coolers, icebreakers, and interest-based Slack channels to encourage workers to collaborate beyond work, are some examples of such strategies.

Such activities might look fun and games, but they go deeper in bringing the members together and building trust. According to research on managing the virtual workspace, it is proven that such activities provide a psychologically safe environment that encourages information sharing and socializing among the workforce.

This article lists some tips to forge meaningful connections and socialize in a remote work setting.

Look for reasons to connect

The pandemic has forced us to become isolated in communications, limiting the scope of talks beyond work. To improve remote work communication in an environment with fewer levels of management, individual contributors need to take responsibility for building and maintaining social relationships with their teammates.

An easy way to achieve this goal is to reach out to team members with the reasons to connect. Do not just reach out when you need something. Be intentional in connecting to them on a more personal level. You can spend the first few minutes of every meeting sharing small talk with team members. If you are not prepared, listen throughout the session and list issues or problems that other team members point out. Next time use these points to initiate a conversation on a personal level.

Social networking

Today, there are a range of online social platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and other instant messaging services that you can use to stay connected and chat with your coworkers outside the formal space. The idea here is to use social networking as a tool for remote work interaction that extends beyond professional relationships.

We recommend using instant messaging platforms for face-to-face interactions rather than chats. Seeing people’s faces is vital for building rapport. Video chatting sessions help you remember that your coworkers are real humans with whom you can connect on a deeper level. When you look someone in the eye and use open body language, it provides subtle social cues you can never get by just hearing their voice. Therefore, you should use videoconferencing to catch up for a better connection with other remote workers.

Give people the benefit of the doubt

Before remote work became a norm, the trust between managers, workers, and teammates was established over time through a combination of interactions on both virtual platforms and in person. However, building a psychologically safe environment in a remote work setting is difficult when meeting people virtually. It is human nature to be skeptical of trusting someone you have never seen face-to-face in a physical space. This is why you need to give everyone the benefit of the doubt to build honest and positive relationships. Leverage the ‘swift trust’ theory to accelerate the trust-building process and help each other progress through competence and trustworthiness.

Get out once a day

It might seem futile, but make it a point to leave the house once a day. It can be to run an errand, stroll with your pet, or go for a midday walk, it is important to get out of the house at least once every day. Your interaction with your teammates depends significantly on your attitude and emotional state. It is far too easy to stay cooped up in the house when working in a remote environment. This isolation can affect your mental and emotional health, so balancing work and life is essential. There are countless ways to interact throughout the day, and it doesn’t have to be with the colleagues only. For a change of scene, you can take a laptop to the local coffee shop, restaurant, or library and work from there. The change of environment and human contact will lift your spirits and minimize the feeling of isolation.

Try virtual well-being classes

It is essential to prioritize your well-being when you work from home. Fortunately, there are several ways you can keep healthy while improving your remote work interaction with colleagues. Plan fun group activities like virtual meditation sessions or yoga classes weekly. Virtual well-being classes are engaging and help you take care of your physical, mental, and emotional well-being while opening up to other teammates.

Conclusion

Working in a remote setting doesn’t mean you have to socialize less. As listed above, there are several ways to improve your remote work communication. We believe utilizing these five tips can drastically improve your interaction with other teammates.

Talent500 is a platform of Fortune 500 companies and fast-growing startups use to build more inter-connected tech teams. Join our elite pool of talent today!

5 Necessary traits of software development team leaders

Posted on July 15, 2022July 15, 2022 by seoteam

Are you leading a software development team that’s been dragging lately? Or are you struggling to onboard new team members to expand the team?

These instances are not a reflection of a lack of technical acumen, but somewhat deficient developer soft skills. To be a software development team leader, you must understand that the role is not just about technical leadership but requires a balance of emotional intelligence and vision to see the larger picture. It is important to consider if you lack any essential developer traits to improve the functionality and morale of the team, which is causing discord between you and the team.

In this article, we cover the top 5 software development leadership skills that will help you succeed in your role as a team leader.

1. Effective communication

Great leaders communicate well, and software development team leaders are no exceptions. You cannot succeed in your role if you cannot keep team members with the least effort. At every step of development, you will have to make team members understand what they need to do when facing a challenge. Also, you have to create an open, safe environment where people feel comfortable sharing ideas.

As a team leader, the onus will be on you to ensure that the team is not wasting time on unnecessary communications. Focus on developing great communication channels utilizing tools like Slack. Minimize team meetings to the necessary to save time and energy that can help increase productivity. Also, facilitate team collaboration through tools like Asana, Jira, and Trello.

2. Customer-centric

Modern software development is more people-driven and value-driven than a bland set of processes and documentation. Team leaders must keep a customer-centric mentality and focus on the client and the end-user when guiding their teams throughout product development.

Businesses look at software developer team leaders to effectively transform their customer requirements into software development tasks. To achieve this, the software development team must have a customer-centric approach. It will help them anticipate the end user’s requirements and needs and create satisfactory results.

As a team leader, you must ensure that your software development team keeps the customer at the front and center through all the software development phases.

3. Delegation

As a software development team leader, one of the crucial roles will be to delegate the tasks to the right individuals. It is easier than it sounds. The art of delegation requires team leaders to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the team members to assign tasks to developers most suited for the job. Focus on getting to know each team member on an individual level.

For instance, take note of which developers are good with frontend tasks and who can perform backend development roles more efficiently. When you assign tasks to team members based on their abilities, you encourage them to work at their best. This increases overall team productivity and positively impacts the team’s confidence.

A team leader is a delegator at their best. They help their team recognize their strengths and shortcomings through delegation.

4. Deep technical knowledge

In software development, you cannot rely on the whole “if you can’t do, teach” mentality. You cannot leave the development tasks for the developers in the team to figure out. Instead, you must know the entire tech stack inside and out. Deep technical knowledge is another essential trait for software development team leaders. Specifically, your expertise must lie in design, development, implementation, debugging, testing, and deployment.

Ultimately, your role is to ensure complex coding tasks are completed as per standards and the final product is delivered by the deadline. It also requires tech leaders to keep up with the emerging technologies to anticipate what tech should be part of a stack to have the most satisfactory results.

5. Emotional intelligence

A person’s emotional intelligence is their ability to perceive, understand, manage and use emotions. It is a crucial developer soft skill that a team leader must possess.

According to Wikipedia, “People with high emotional intelligence can recognize their own emotions and those of others, use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior, discern between different feelings and label them appropriately, and adjust emotions to adapt to environments.”

When you are leading a software team, you will have to recognize, manage and handle varying emotions originating within your team. While your technical knowledge will help guide developers in the team when they’re faced with a challenge, to manage the overall team efficiently, you must be adept at managing human emotions.

For software development team leaders, emotional intelligence is an important trait that helps them understand what the clients want, empathize with the challenges they face, and motivate individual developers in the team to deliver the best results.

Conclusion

Being a good team leader isn’t easy. It’s one of the most challenging roles in software development. It is a role that requires much more than technical skills. To succeed, you need leadership qualities to encourage a team of developers to learn, grow, tackle challenges, and communicate well while allowing them to make mistakes in a safe environment. Ensure you have all the traits listed above before taking up a leadership role.

4 Productivity hacks for software developers

Posted on July 15, 2022July 15, 2022 by seoteam

Not just developers but every professional struggles with daily productivity at work as humans have limited willpower, and it is scientifically impossible to remain productive all day.

But because work must be done, code written, and projects delivered. So, how do you stimulate your developer productivity?

That’s what we are going to explore in this article. If you are a junior developer, you are at a stage where you need to discover what works best for you and discover productivity hacks that will serve you well for the rest of your career. Even if you are an experienced programmer, it is not too late to nurture new habits.

Here are the top four productivity hacks for software developers to stay focused and optimize their daily productivity.

1. Create a well-aware development environment

The more aware of the weapons in your arsenal, the easier it will be to kill the enemy. To be clear, the enemy is the distractions that break your workflow. To remain productive, you must take minimal detours to research a library or a tool to use in the project.

Familiarize yourself with the development environment you work in and the tools you use. You must know the editor you write code on like the back of your hand. Know all shortcuts – the quickest way to search a function, the fastest method to refactor, the best way to autocomplete code, etc.

Furthermore, learn all the libraries available in your chosen language(s). The best way to learn about libraries is to write an example for each, so you know how and when to use one. The more you experiment with a library, the more equipped you will be to use it when the opportunity strikes.

2. Divide, prioritize, then conquer

You have limited hours to put at work. You cannot accommodate each feature, fix every bug, or design the whole interface in a single day. It is where you need to use your time management skills to prioritize tasks.

Break chunks into smaller attainable tasks. It will psychologically affect your mood as your morale will be uplifted with each accomplishment, and your productivity will be high. On the contrary, if you try to do everything at once, you will achieve nothing, and as the hours pass, pressure will increase, and productivity will decline.

To accomplish tasks, make a list and prioritize. Be realistic about how much work you can get done within a day. Plan and work accordingly, but don’t miss to reflect upon what you accomplish each day. Even after a few failed attempts at the beginning, you will see productivity building up consistently over time.

3. The secret lies in regular short breaks

There are enough studies to support that taking breaks between work leads to higher productivity. Scheduling breaks within your coding sessions can help you focus, improve creativity, reduce stress, and optimize your overall well-being.

One technique that developers can use is the Pomodoro Technique. It is a straightforward technique for time management that programmers use. In the Pomodoro technique, you break down your work intervals into 25-minute sessions followed by 5-minute breaks.

After every four 25-minute work sessions, you take an extended break of 20 to 30 minutes. It is a technique that has been working for the developer community for decades and will also work for you. Use your breaks to relax your eyes, stretch your body, walk around, or chat with friends and colleagues. Then when you return to work, you will be mentally and physically refreshed, ready to focus more on the task.

4. Keep learning

It might not appear to be one of the best productivity hacks; however, constantly updating your skills will make you more productive. As you expand your knowledge and gain more experience, you become a programmer who solves problems faster and more efficiently. You inevitably learn how to be more productive and what methods and practices serve you best.

Investing in yourself and exploring new tools to speed up the workflow is essential. An excellent way for professional growth is to take up hobby projects or participate in open source projects. You can tackle challenges faster and be more productive as you learn new tricks.

Conclusion

Developer productivity hacks that we have listed above will take time to implement. Developing a healthy productivity plan is a task in itself that requires commitment, resilience, patience, and most importantly, consistency. As you keep on the path and practice these hacks daily, you will experience a significant difference in your productivity.

Don’t forget that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to productivity management. Some tricks might work for you, some might not. It is on you to keep exploring, upskilling, and learning what works best for you.

Talent500 is a platform for discovering, hiring, and managing remote teams for Fortune 500 companies, start-ups, and fast-growing small businesses. Signup today and join the elite pool of talent to be discovered by the best companies.

5 Time management tips for software developers

Posted on July 15, 2022 by seoteam

The software development industry has a vast pool of talent. But the developers who stand out are the ones who have mastered time management. Companies understand that technical skills alone will not get the job done; a programmer must be skilled in managing time.

As you progress in your career, you will face more daunting tasks and optimal time management will ensure you deliver results by the deadline every time. Software developers juggle dozens of jobs at a given time. Keeping your head above water will be impossible without ongoing time management.

This article summarizes top time management tips for software developers to help them succeed in their careers.

1. Up your time management game through training

A successful software developer can get multiple things done consecutively. According to the Academy of Management Study, some people are naturally better at time management; nevertheless, it is a skill that can be nurtured with practice. The study concluded that people who trained in time management felt less stress under pressure and were in more control of their time than those who did not get the training.

However, you must be clear about what training can help you learn time management. Maura Thomas, a productivity thought leader argued in her Harvard Business Review publication that “traditional” time management courses are no longer relevant for today’s workers. For software developers, she recommends a time management training that incorporates these components:

Focus on role priorities rather than specific task priorities
Training for attention management skills rather than “time management” skills
A comprehensive workflow management system

Therefore, investing in a high-quality time management course is crucial. Here is a list of top time management courses on Udemy.

2. Have a plan

For software developer productivity, planning is everything. It is a known fact in the software development industry that 80% of a developer’s time is spent on research, while only 20% on writing code. But when you add planning to the mix, you can better manage your time to complete tasks without delays.

Plan your day every morning to sort through all crucial tasks according to priority. You can create an Excel list to keep tabs on all necessary tasks you must achieve within the day. Interruptions are inevitable. An emergency client meeting can distract you from the keyword, or something personal might come up, but you must return to the task at hand as soon as possible.

3. Use time tracking tools

Another practical time management tip is to use time tracking tools on the job. Time tracking software like Focus Keeper and Smarter Time can help you automate the tracking requirements. With these tools, you can easily track how much time you spend on various tasks associated with the project across devices.

They can also track your time on social media sites to help you understand your time-spending behavior. You can combine this time tracking app with a high-quality task manager to get real-time analytics of how focused you are and how you can manage more efficiently. It is essential to be mindful of where your time is going and how you can optimize it for productivity.

4. Keep distractions away

Distractions are one of the biggest time killers for software developers. A study from the University of California, Irvine, found that when a person is distracted, they need 23 minutes and 15 seconds on average to get back in the zone.

Considering the findings of this study, you can easily anticipate how much time you would be wasting if you were distracted a few times a day. To make things worse, software developers work on devices with an Internet connection. If you are a social media user, you are bound to receive daily notifications that distract you from the assignment.

Fortunately, keeping distractions at bay is relatively straightforward. All you have to do is turn off notifications of all your social media accounts except the ones you need for your work. If you’re working from home, create personal office space so that you are on the daily distractions. Keeping distractions away will improve your productivity and work quality.

5. Take regular breaks

Humans only have limited willpower to stay disciplined throughout the day. Breaks are essential to staying productive. Software developers should take frequent breaks to rejuvenate their creative juices and focus more on work. The Pomodoro technique is one of the most popular techniques to boost software developer productivity through regular intervals.

It is a five-step process known to keep you relaxed and mentally fresh. Here’s how you can use it:

Step 1: Pick a task

Step 2: Set the timer for a 25-minute reminder

Step 3: Be focused on your task until the reminder sets off

Step 4: Take a break for 5 minutes and then return to work

(This is a Pomodoro set)

Step 5: After every 4 Pomodoro sets, take a 20-30 minutes break.

Although a simple technique, it can keep you fresh for an extended period and help prevent mental exhaustion.

Conclusion

Time management is not a sprint but a marathon. It is a skill that takes time to master but serves you lifelong. The time management tips above can help software developers become more consistent, resilient, and committed to their work.

Talent500 is the fast-growing platform for start-ups, and Fortune500 companies use it to hire, build, and manage their global remote teams. Signup to join the elite pool of talent and get discovered by some of the best companies globally!

Tips for good communication within a software development team

Posted on July 15, 2022 by seoteam

Good communication within a team is as important as technical knowledge in software development. If you are a team leader struggling to keep things together within your team because of a lack of proper communication between individual developers, then you need to read this article to the end.

In the article, we are about to explore some critical communication tips for tech teams. But before we get started, it is essential to pay attention to this study by Queens University of Charlotte that found:

Only 27% of employees ever receive any communication training.
While 3 out of 4 developers agree that teamwork and collaboration are “essential”, about 39% of the surveyed professionals agreed that their organization lacks effective collaboration within teams.
Around 73% of respondents lacked confidence in their communication skills at work.

These numbers indicate that companies lack strategies to train employees to communicate and collaborate better.

Here are the tips to overcome these challenges of poor communication within your software development team and improve workflow and collaboration.

Active listening in dev communication

Development teams collaborate through multiple channels – the good ol’ meetings, whiteboard sessions, conference calls, and more recently, over video calls when working remotely. Effective communication is a two-way street implying listeners should participate in the process through active listening.

Active listening is different from just listening to argue or reply. It involves proactively trying to understand what the speaker is trying to convey. It is essential to stay engaged with the speaker.

There are a few practical communication tips for active listening.

Avoid holding important team meetings over voice calls. Instead, video calls are better as team members can see each other. Maintaining eye contact lets the other person know you are actively listening to what they say.
Train the team to be neutral and not judgmental during a conversation. For instance, if a tester has reported a bug that the developers can’t replicate, then instead of mentally preparing a rebuttal to argue their decision, the tester must devise a rational way to explain the error.
Help team members reflect on their communication. Let them know how they speak and present their opinions in a team meeting with honest and assertive feedback.

Ask questions

Reviews are often seen as threatening arguments by developers if they are negative. However, there are ways to minimize such technical statements from breaking out with some written communication tips.

Train developers to leave a comment on a review they receive as a question rather than a snarky comment. For instance, if a QA engineer finds a performance issue within the code, they can leave a comment instead of commanding words.

Here’s an example of a commanding comment:

You should optimize the JavaScript code by minifying it.

Here’s the same response as a question:

The code has performance issues due to large JavaScript files-I think we should minify the JS files for better performance. What do you think?

There is a striking difference between the two approaches.

When the communication takes a command style, it is often because the reviewer expects that the developer has not tried the fix they are recommending. But when they ask questions, they ask for clarification from the developer about the code and offer a solution without using a dismissive tone.

It is one of the practical communication tips your team members should know.

Solve conflicts as a team

When there is a conflict between coworkers, the obvious strategy is to talk it out and rationally reach a consensus, but sometimes it hardly happens quietly. Both the parties involved in the argument often are sure that their way is the right way.

The problem with such conflicts is that they affect the whole team. The right approach here is to ask both parties to present their opinion to the entire team. Make everyone in the team aware of the conflict so they can democratically come up with a solution.

Involve developers in planning

The fastest approach to enable good communication within the software development team is to start at the beginning. A project will have software development and business planning aspects, but most dev teams fail to involve the developers at the early stage of project planning. This often-overlooked step creates communication challenges later on.

When developers are involved in the project from the beginning, they can guide the best approach to achieve specific tasks. It is one of the best communication tips for tech teams to avoid creating over-complicated plans that are too hard to implement.

Developers feel the pressure when they are asked to deliver results that are too complicated or have unreal timelines. Good planning is mandatory for project success. Keep communication transparent at all levels and prepare a list of terms and responsibilities for team members. Regardless of when a developer joins the project, they should have access to the list, so they understand their responsibility as well as of others.

Conclusion

Even with the most competent developers in your software development team, you cannot deliver results efficiently and without conflicts, if your team is marred with poor communication. There is always room for improvement, and we have made the essential communication tips available. Utilize them to improve the communication within your team.

Talent500 is the platform for startups, brands, and Fortune 500 companies to build their remote teams. Sign up today to be part of the most talented engineering teams.

How to build team morale as a lead developer

Posted on May 2, 2022May 2, 2022 by seoteam

Morale and positive reinforcement are the backbones of successful teams. As a lead developer, you have to take it seriously. Numerous studies show that employee morale plays a vital role in any organization’s success.

Why focus on developer motivation?

Other than the benefits at an individual level, team morale boosters work to elevate the employer brand. Unmotivated employees leaving an organization can share negative comments about the company culture. On sites like Glassdoor, where employees can share their views on the company, team, and managers, negative reviews can deter prospective talent from joining your company.

Being a senior developer in the team, you are in the position to take measures to ensure developer motivation. It is essential because:

Positive team morale leads to increased productivity. There is existing proof that boosted confidence produces quality work.
Morale will keep developers in your team striving hard to overcome challenges. If there’s a problem with your team’s morale, it’s doubtful that they will put in extra hard work.
Team morale reduces the attrition rate too. Your company gets to retain top talent, and motivated team members create a healthy work environment. It also facilitates business costs by ensuring your team delivers quality work every time.

Morale is intangible and has no formula, but there are simple steps you can take to encourage developers and boost their confidence. Here we list some strategic ways to support your team’s morale.

1. Help find meaning in the work

It will be hard to keep developers motivated if they cannot find meaning in what they do. How does your team feel about the work? Are they satisfied with work at the end of the day?

If the developers struggle to find meaning or pleasure in their work, help them reassess their position.

You can utilize the Meaning, Pleasure, Strengths (MPS) Process developed by Harvard professor and best-selling author Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar. It is a three-step strategy to help anyone find meaning in work.

Lead developers are responsible for assessing programmers in their team individually. You have to understand the person to help them find meaning in what they do.

Ensure that the developers are not stuck in a rut at any step. It will kill their creativity and motivation to excel.

2. Provide adequate time and resources

Providing adequate time and resources is also essential for boosting developer motivation. When it comes to millennials, development, and training resources are more important than any other incentive to motivate them.

If you do not dedicate enough time or resources, you are not providing your team with enough room to progress. It would help if you fixed that as it can risk a drop in morale.

As a lead developer, when you offer your team learning resources and development programs, it strengthens your position as a leader. It shows them that you’re willing to invest in them and want them to be better at their jobs.

3. Define practical yet challenging goals

Specific goals efficiently drive software engineers. Ambiguity confuses their analytical minds. It is your responsibility to maintain a sustainable schedule to deliver objectives. Your teammates might not mind putting in extra hours or working on weekends if an unexpected technological challenge arises, but they will resent working overtime regularly.

The software development cycle often has a time crunch. No one will want to work on a project with unreal goal delivery deadlines. As a team manager, you must maintain a work schedule conducive to developer motivation.

4. Give practical input and encourage creativity

Appreciated employees are far more productive; Gallup found that acknowledgment is the best motivator to retain top performers in the team. In his book How Full Is Your Bucket? Tom Rath argues that employees who receive regular, positive recognition experience higher morale and productivity. Such employees are more loyal to the company and go the extra mile to deliver better customer satisfaction.

It would help if you focused on delivering practical input to developers. Tell them how well they are doing and what they can do to improve the quality of the code. You can encourage creativity by shining the spotlight on teammates by sharing fun and engaging stories about their successes.

5. Promote continuous learning

Developers rejoice in opportunities that allow them to learn new skills. You can use continuous learning as a team morale booster. By creating an environment for learning, you can keep developers motivated to apply their learning to deliver high-performing solutions. Learning keeps developers challenged, and when your team realizes that they are garnering invaluable information through learning, they will want to learn more and grow more.

Conclusion

Your team’s morale is a crucial measure of how motivated and driven the developers are. Boosting team morale is an ongoing effort. It goes beyond free merchandise, social events, and incentives. There is a boost in morale by investing in more important things like career growth, learning, and personal development. Utilize the strategies shared here to create a healthy and positive culture within your team.

Talent500 has helped some of the biggest companies across the globe build their remote teams. If you are motivated to become part of a distributed workforce, we have career redefining opportunities. Join our platform today.

How to provide criticism to your team as a senior or lead developer

Posted on April 29, 2022April 29, 2022 by seoteam

It can be challenging to share criticism with your team as it requires you to be mindful of the type of personality you are dealing with.

Still, sharing criticism is part of managing software development teams. It can be a formidable tool for creating high-performing engineering teams that yield results with the right strategy.

A typical development team will have several developers working together at the helm of a team manager. It consists of back end developers, front end developers, designers, testers, and copywriters. As a lead developer, you are at the task of handling the needs and wants of the clients while monitoring developers for performance and skills. You also have to share honest feedback with team members that may not always be positive.

Unfortunately, while providing criticism is essential, few managers understand how to do it right. In fact, according to a Gallup survey, only 26% of employees agree that the feedback they received made them work better.

We aim to help senior developers become effective managers by sharing tips on how they can help their teams get better at what they do. Let’s begin and know how to be an excellent senior developer/ lead developer.

1. Know your team

Before you provide criticism, you must know each programmer in your team at the individual level. Profile each person to understand their strengths and weaknesses. It will help you anticipate the areas in which each team member is most likely to fall short.

Your goal is not to stop providing criticism but to enable the learning and growth of the team members. As a lead developer, mentorship is one of your core responsibilities. Before you call upon an unacceptable behavior or shortcoming, first ensure that you understand the other person’s concerns. If their opinion is different from yours about the given task, look at things from their perspective.

If you find that the criticism is acceptable to you personally, you can confidently share it with the concerned person.

2. Practice empathy and encouragement in communication

To err is human, so be mindful of this wisdom, and you will never make the feedback a one-way monologue. Show empathy in your communication and ask the recipient about their perspective of things. It should go without saying, as a senior developer, you must make subordinates feel valued.

Encouragement must accompany criticism, and when you maintain a respectful tone, your message is much more effective. Replace ‘you’ and ‘your’ with ‘we’ and ‘our.’ Remember, you are trying to create a dialogue, not single out the mistakes.

3. Directing people, not code

A development team will have different levels of seniority and experience working on the same product. Not all teammates will have the same coding style, and each person will take a different approach to solve the same problem. As a lead developer, your job is to keep each team member motivated while demanding code quality, stability, and optimization. It is not possible without criticism but be careful.

How you will deliver the criticism can be the difference between leading an average coder on a path to becoming a great programmer or placing him into a vicious cycle of unproductiveness where he will leave the job or get fired.

You have to lead the person, not the code. Avoid punishing a developer for the mistakes he commits when coding. Instead, convey what is expected from him, making him realize that he can improve.

4. Provide clear and actionable feedback

In your career progression, you might have come across managers who told you something like, “You should be more reliable,” or, “Try to be more proactive.” That’s ambiguity at its best. How are you supposed to know what they are referring to? Never initiate talks or provide feedback with such blurry statements.

Instead of saying, “Try to be more proactive,” be more specific. Something like, you told me you would come up with some solution to improve server response time, but still haven’t. Are you facing any issues?

If you are not sharing specific criticism, you are confusing developers in your team. They cannot identify which behaviors are inappropriate for successful performance. Providing constructive and transparent criticism lets them know that they are doing things right, but there is room for improvement.

Furthermore, always keep in mind that you target a specific action or behavior with criticism. Please avoid commenting on the person or their personality at all costs. It includes things that are beyond their control. For instance, if you share feedback on an employee’s speech, talk about the content, body language, presentation, etc., rather than telling them that their voice is too husky.

5. Value their opinions and vision

Incentives and benefits might make employees happy, but their opinions and vision keep them engaged at work. Being dismissive of their views might break their spirit. Unless you appreciate your team members’ ideas, no number of team-building events and company retreats can motivate them to work.

Conclusion

Delivering criticism without hurting anyone is the difference between ineffective and efficient managers. As a lead developer, focus your criticism on helping your team grow rather than forcing them to deliver short-term gains.

Talent500 is the platform where many fast-growing startups and Fortune500 companies hire senior developers. Join our community of elite talent today.

Freelance and Full-time opportunities for Full Stack developers

Posted on April 1, 2022April 1, 2022 by seoteam

Full-stack developer, a position made famous by the Silicon Valley lore, is a professional who works across the entire product development, from backend to up to frontend UI experience, handling databases in between.

Even as the no-code tools are becoming popular, opportunities for Full Stack developers are aplenty and remain high in demand. This demand is driven by the need of companies to build their proprietary tools and products and startups trying to save cost by hiring these technological jacks-of-all-trades.If you are here, we assume you are trying to understand the job prospect of becoming a full-stack developer. Breaking into full-stack development is quite straightforward but not simple. We already have detailed guides on how frontend developers can build skills to turn into full-stack developers or how backend developers can take full-stack dev roles.

This article is about exploring the full-time and freelance opportunities available for full-stack developers.

Let’s focus on that.

Full time vs. Freelance Opportunities For Full Stack Developers

Full-stack developers are high in demand at product-based and service-based companies equally. Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, and Google are some of the companies that always look for skilled full-stack developers.

There are many reasons to look for full-time full-stack development roles. Easily available jobs and higher pay are the two factors why developers want to embrace the full stack dev field. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, job openings for full-stack developers will increase from 135,000 to over 853,000 by 2024. The average salary of full-stack developers is $106,000 a year on average.

How much you earn as a full stack developer in a full-time role depends on the company location, company size, and experience. There is a learning curve in this position, which is why there lies a major gap between how much you earn as a beginner compared to what you’d be earning at the top of your career.

Even before the pandemic made remote work the new normal, developers were working as freelancers. As a freelance full-stack developer, you can earn a lot more than full-time roles, but it comes with greater demands and expectations from clients.

On average, freelance full-stack developers with 1-3 years of experience make anywhere between $50 to $75 per hour. This is much higher than the industry standard as the demand for full-stack developers is high to handle projects individually. With a few years of experience under their belt, full-stack developers can earn as high as $300+ per hour. However, for such high rates, you will have to demonstrate your expertise.

Why become a freelance full-stack developer?

As remote work is becoming mainstream culture, developers are more actively looking for freelancing opportunities. While it is true that freelancing comes with its own set of challenges such as no security of monthly paychecks, unavailability of clients at times, and no fixed work routine, the benefits simply outweigh these cons.

Autonomy

Who doesn’t want to be their boss? Freelancers have full autonomy over decisions regarding projects, the work schedule, and rates. You work on projects you want and are in more control of what technologies to use.

Choose the tech

As a full-stack developer, you are expected to work on all levels of the technology behind any web application. However, in a full-time job, you will be limited to working on the tech stack that your company uses unless you are lucky enough to start a project from scratch on your own. As a freelancer, you have the liberty to use the programming language you want, frameworks you are comfortable with, and all tech you want to combine in your stack.

Flexibility

Needless to mention, as a freelancer, you will never have to work 9-5. You can live as a digital nomad if you want. That being said, this flexibility is in no way an excuse to miss deadlines. As a freelancer, a lot will depend on how timely you deliver projects.

Work-life balance

Full-stack development is a lot of work. As a freelancer, you can better manage work-life balance as you are free to work at hours you are most productive. This leaves more time to spend with family

Ready to leap into a freelance full-stack developer?Talent500 has already helped many freelance full-stack developers find global clients and work on projects they are passionate about. Sign up today to be included in our elite network of professionals.

Full Stack developer interview preparation resources

Posted on April 1, 2022 by seoteam

Full stack development roles are huge in demand. Companies are looking for developers with the right talent to fill open positions. There is a gap between the demand for skilled full-stack developers and available candidates, which is why full stack developer interview processes can be challenging.

How can you ace Full Stack Developer interview rounds?

Preparation is the only way to face the interviews with confidence. How do you prepare for the interview depends on which company you are interviewing but there is a template you can follow for overall preparation.

Usually, every step of the hiring process has its purpose. The phone screening interviews are to identify the general fit about the candidate while the technical interviews check their skills and problem-solving ability. Then there are behavioural interviews that provide an idea of the interpersonal skills of the full-stack developers.

Landing a job as a full-stack developer can be very rewarding and satisfying, but first, you need to prove that you can handle the role’s responsibilities and deliver on the company’s needs. Talent500 has helped full-stack developers with varying experience to land jobs in some of the largest companies across the globe.

In this article, we will detail everything you need to know about the full stack developer interview process and also share preparation resources.

The Full Stack Developer interview process has changed over the years

There was a time when a full stack interview was a nightmare for a developer. There were horror stories about how developers are asked to write compiler-ready code on a whiteboard or write “Hello World!” in 10 different languages. Fortunately, today developers are interviewed in a more collaborative discussion and are more liked to get take-home assignments.

It might be surprising, but interviewers want you to succeed because they want to get back to their jobs as soon as possible. They do not want to keep interviewing candidates after candidates.

This is why you must take your interview as another test of your problem-solving ability, something that can be improved with practice and preparation.

Skills any full stack developer must have

Diversity is the key to being successful as a full-stack developer. It is a multifaceted role that requires you to have extensive knowledge of a variety of skills instead of just a format degree. You will be handling all the responsibilities on both the frontend and backend fronts of the assignment; this is why you must possess all the necessary skills.

Here are the important skills, any full-stack developer must possess.

Frontend Technologies: HTML/CSS and JavaScript

HTML and CSS are the building blocks of the website application on the users’ front. A full-stack developer must have the expertise of HTML to create a frontend structure for applications. Next comes the mastery of CSS which is how you style all the elements of HTML and create a user experience. But CSS is the basic styling language, SASS is an upgrade on CSS that we think every full stack developer must know to design a better client-side experience of the application.

JavaScript is extremely important for full-stack developers to create enhanced and interactive front-end development projects. JavaScript is a dynamic language which is why you can use it for both, frontend and backend development.

Any full stack developer is expected to understand browser architecture and develop applications by integrating JavaScript with HTML, and CSS to create faster and more secure web applications that run on any browser. Further into the JavaScript territory are certain frameworks that modernize web applications. Some of the most popular frameworks are Vue, React, Node, and Angular.

You must be aware of the capabilities of JavaScript and how to use different libraries and frameworks for faster development.

Git and GitHub

From amateur to experienced developers, Git and GitHub are tools that are equally important for everyone. You must be aware of how to make use of Git to micromanage the development process. This Distributed Version Control System stands out from others because of its efficiency, tracking, and error-solving capability.

Full-stack developers actively use GitHub for project management. It is the platform that makes large-scale team collaborations and project management possible.

Backend Languages

Backend is the backbone for any web application. As a full-stack developer, you will be expected to show mastery of handling backend requirements of a project which is why you must have a sound understanding of important programming languages.

Most full-stack developers consider Java as their language of choice for backend development as it is a standard for designing large-scale enterprise applications. Python is another general-purpose language that can be useful for object-oriented and high-level structured programming. It is incredibly easier to develop quick prototypes in Python. PHP and Ruby are fast, resilient, and efficient server-side programming languages that full-stack developers are expected to know.

Web Architecture

How do you expect to take responsibility for entire web application projects, if you are not aware of the principles of web architecture?

Any proficient full-stack developer is required to handle the project at all stages of its development. You must be aware of the structural elements that constitute any web application which include Domain Name System, Cloud Infrastructure, Database Servers, and other elements of modern web architecture.

Database Management Systems

Data handling is an inevitable part of full-stack development. Modern-day database management systems are changing at a faster pace with cloud storage like AWS And Google Cloud Platforms introducing elastic database tech to help applications scale as per the demand of the situation.

In 2022, any full-stack developer has to possess DBMS knowledge beyond MySQL, Oracle, SQLite, and Microsoft Access.

REST and SOAP

You will also be responsible for system integration as a full stack developer which is why you must know how to enable applications to communicate with each other. You must be skilled in Application Program Interface (API) technologies like SOAP and REST. These two are predominantly used web services for application integration.

Technology Stacks

Full-stack developers must be able to handle any stack, but it helps if you familiarize yourself with some of the most widely implemented tech stacks like LAMP, LEMP, and Django stacks. These are highly popular web application stacks that are also offered as ready-to-deploy solutions by many cloud platforms.

Soft skills any full stack developer must have

While technical skills make you ready for the job, it is the soft skills that make you fit the company culture and be part of the team. This is why your technical proficiency alone will not suffice to get you hired. Any full stack developer is expected to have some important soft skills including:

Multi-tasking
Ability to express and communicate
Time management skills
Creative vision
Leadership qualities
Patience and intuitiveness
Attention to detail

Now, let’s check out the resources that will help you with interview preparation.

Top technical handbooks for full stack developers

Fresher or experienced, you will need resources to learn or recall important skills that make you a better full stack developer. Here are some excellent books that full-stack developers rely on to learn, keep themselves updated, and take guidance from.

ASP.NET Core 3 and Angular 9

The Full-Stack Developer

Hands-On Full Stack Development with Spring Boot 2 and React by Juha Hinkula

Modern Full-Stack Development: Using TypeScript, React, Node.js, Webpack, and Docker by Frank Zammetti

Python API Development Fundamentals

Full-Stack JavaScript Development

Top courses to upskill full-stack development skills

Any full-stack developer worth his code is on a path of continuous learning. Professional upskilling programs and certification courses can help you get better at your job.

Here are the upskilling courses we recommend:

Full Stack Web Developer Courses (edX)

Full-Stack Web Development with React Specialization by The Hongkong University of Science and Technology on Coursera

Professional Full Stack Web Developer – Nanodegree Certification (Udacity)

Beginner Full Stack Web Development: HTML, CSS, React & Node (Udemy)

Become a Full-Stack Web Developer on LinkedIn Learning

As the technology is advancing at light speed, it helps if you know who are industry leaders you can follow to be in touch with what’s happening in the industry.

Here are the top full-stack developers to follow.

Top full-stack dev influencers

John Sonmez: An industry veteran, he is helping full-stack developers learn since 1999.

Twitter | LinkedIn

Wes Bos: Founder of BosType, he has over 2 million followers on Twitter.

Twitter | LinkedIn

Dan Abramov: An authority on ReactJS, he works at Facebook.

Twitter

Kent C. Dodds: A developer expert at Google

Twitter | LinkedIn

If you are a front-end developer planning to take up a full-stack development career path, check out our Front End Development Skills – Ultimate Guide To Becoming A Full-stack Developer. For frontend developers we have detailed a guide to help with the transition, our Backend Development Skills – The Ultimate Roadmap to Becoming a Full-stack Developer is the roadmap towards better career prospects for backend developers.

Once you think you are ready to look out for full-stack developer opportunities, join our elite group of talent. Talent500 is the platform where global tech companies hire, build and manage their global teams. Signup today.