Radu Gheorghiu

Layoffs in 2024? Still happening. (but demand for adaptable junior IT specialists is strong) 262,000 (!) employees were laid off in 2024. And it’s not over yet. Many juniors feel desperate. They’re worried about their future. But opportunities still exist. Here are 6 ways to win as a junior product manager (and keep your job): #1 - Zoom Out & See the Bigger Picture - Establish a long-term product vision. - Analyze competitors to understand customer needs. - Prioritize tasks that support short-term goals. #2 - Simplify the Complex - Break projects into manageable parts. - Communicate clearly and concisely. - Turn chaos into clarity. #3 - Master Communication - Listen actively and remain open to opinions. - Maintain a calm tone. - Use appropriate formats (graphs, prototypes, plain speech) for messages. #4 - Plan Strategically - Allocate resources, identify risks, and set priorities. - Monitor progress and adjust based on data. - Validate hypotheses through A/B testing and user research. #5 - Leverage Analytics - Connect input metrics to business outcomes. - Use data insights effectively. #6 - Focus on Customer Experience - Gather feedback and analyze user behavior. - Identify trade-offs for quicker launches. - Measure key metrics like satisfaction and churn. Layoffs in 2024? Still happening. Don’t let layoffs define you. Instead, use them as fuel.

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🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨 NEW CV ALERT 🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨 👀 Are you a recruiter or a hiring manager looking for a freelancer? You already might have my CV, but that doesn't mean that you have the latest version. I created a new version of it with a new format, easier to read, straight to the point and much shorter 💡 If you want a copy of it, don't hesitate to send me a message, and I'll reply back with a copy of it ✉ #freelance #freelancer #zpp #zpper #zppopdrachten #azure #kubernetes #terraform #armtemplates #bicep #argocd #python

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Thinking about hiring someone new? Before you do, why not see how much of the job could be automated? I've been working on a simple tool with Dejan Sobota where you input details about a job role and instantly discover: 🔹 Which tasks can be automated 🔹 What can't be automated 🔹 How much money you could save Give it a spin and let me know what you think! If you spot any bugs or weirdness, please let me know. Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/dpAE_D7W P.S. Built with Webflow and Zapier – amazing what you can create with no-code tools these days!

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"It’s harder to read code than to write it.” This is a quote for @Joel Spolsky from a blog post he wrote in 2000. In his article he talks about the single biggest mistake a software company can make being the decision to throw out the old code base and start from scratch. He reasons that the major assumption that companies make around the re-write being better than the first iteration is flawed. He also identifies that Software engineers find it easier to start from scratch rather than re-working a code base that has been working effectively and has had the bugs solved. Whilst this is an old article there are some super valuable points in it. Link is in the comments.

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You can't change an agency's interview process. 🚨 But you can take a shortcut with this trick 👇 12 days ago, I talked to a German senior DevOps engineer. He reached out after my post about breaking free from agencies. For 2 years, he worked directly with CTOs as clients. He loved it as… He could connect to those CTOs in the interviews cause… They had a similar mindset. They were devs too in the past. Sadly…this all changed as… His last three roles were through agencies. He had zero connection to the actual client and… He felt like just another number in the system. I gave it to him straight: 🧔🏽‍♂️: “Your problem isn’t the agencies.” 🧔🏽‍♂️: “It’s your positioning.” We reflected on his best clients and… Spotted a pattern: 1) They were German FinTech CTOs 2) They spent hours troubleshooting GCP security issues. That’s when it hit him: 👉 He could position himself to solve that exact problem. 👈 So, we rewrote his LinkedIn headline to: ✅ GCP security for German FinTechs: I implement zero-trust architecture to protect sensitive financial data Suddenly, he wasn’t just another generic “Freelance DevOps Engineer” anymore. He was the solution to a painful problem many CTOs have. Only 5 days later, a startup CTO reached out. No agency. No formal process. Just a direct connection based on an urgent, real need. Remember: You can’t change an agency’s interview process, but… You can change how you position yourself. Try it and… Change your freelance dev life. Now.

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At dotnetdays.ro - .NET, Cloud & Software architecture conference I had the pleasure to present my talk Beyond simple benchmarks—a practical guide to optimizing code. People enjoyed my dive into #performance optimizations with #dotnet and how to: - 🗒 Identify areas of improvement which optimize the effort-to-value ration - 🗒 Isolate code to make its performance measurable without extensive refactoring - 🗒 Apply the performance loop ➰ of measuring, changing and validating to ensure performance actually improves and nothing breaks - 🗒 Gradually become more “performance aware” without costing an arm and a leg In case you missed the talk, you have another chance at Techorama Events in Belgium. If you haven't already, go grab a ticket. There are only very few left. https://lnkd.in/dBJvRUj2

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Day 12 of #NoJobNovember! - Exploring DevOps: Combining Developers and Operations for Streamlined Processes We talk about DevOps, which is the combination of developers and operations working together in the same team, rather than having separate teams. We discuss how this helps make the process easier, with an example of the CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment) process. #NoJobNovember #CentralAsianSuccess #DevOps #CICD

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DevOps guy has to do Code Reviews and Integration and e2e Tests writing too. Because that is the only way to ensure: * Produced micro services are in high quality * Security against the hackers No automatic filters will magically help here. One super skilled programmer has to look at the fingers of less experienced colleagues. He has to be subordinate just to CEO, not CTO. Independence, protection from retaliation. Ability to deny backend updates, and there must be nothing the Programmers can do then. Lazy Programmers with attitude problems must be monitored even more. Even if "the team decided" to not do this or that, someone has to protect the company and do not let sloppy work through. Sometimes the hacker infiltrates the company, and attacks from the inside. Then such control is even more important. Many DevOps Pipelines idea is just like that, and that is what the managers often are asking for. They need Programmers to do professional high quality work. And the Programmers do not do that. How to achieve this level of control? #devops #programming #softwaredevelopment

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🎤 I am starting the autumn conference season, next week, with a talk at DevTalksRomania - Cluj-Napoca.   Excited to open the technical presentations on the #ProgrammingStage with a session on Implementing #CleanArchitecture.   💡 I’ll show how to create a structure that makes it easy to write the code that follows the architecture, and at the same time, it makes it difficult to write the code that doesn’t   📝Join me, and you will walk away with a recipe and building blocks for creating a foundation in code that sustains Clean Architecture and the level of quality in your code that can control the complexity of the project.       #publicspeaking #softwarearchitecture #softwaredesign

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I have built yet another tool! I challenged myself to take an idea and build it in a week before I started my new job. This is the result: ForgeTalent: An AI recruitment software that filters through billions of profiles to find the candidate that best suits your job. Just enter a job description, title and location and find candidates that best match the job in seconds. I display a matching score based on each candidates experience and expertise. It’s 100% free. And I built it in a way to cost me very little to run. You can try the mvp below: https://www.forgetalent.co

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I’ve just completed the Intermediate Python Course on DataCamp! Learning a new skill was quick, interactive, and fun! Plus, everything you need is entirely in-browser. Discover which of the 500+ data and AI courses can help you build a stronger career.

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Today is one of my two "studies day" each week. Considering that I've only just started a new career/job about a month ago, and now I am also taking on a part-time specialist diploma, one might consider that a little crazy. Actually, it does feel quite challenging at the moment. But I think the challenge feels more like an adjustment period. Honestly, I am still trying to manage my timing between days (hours) that are dedicated to my work, and allocating the rest for my studies and assignments. Yesterday, I shared a screenshot of what my weekly schedule will look like from now on. Right now, I'll be working 5 days a week, 2 days for school, studies and assignments. So yeah, my life feels really packed right now. Yet, I am also trying to fine-tune my time management so that I can give myself more quality breaks during the day. If my experience has served me well, it is to remind me that the only way to prevent any potential burnout, is to ensure my schedule/plans are sustainable. That also means doing everything in smaller increments and intensity, instead of that initial big burst of energy and time investment (like a 🚀 blasting off). It's more like slowly pulling a cart uphill. Don't get me wrong, my passion for both my work and studies will forever remain at 200%. I don't think that will ever change. I guess it's all about being laser-focused and taking more breaks whenever I need to. #schoolday #noclasstoday #needtostudy #schoolassignments #groupassignments #personalassignments #weeklyschedule #timemanagement #routine #consistency #startsmall #smallincrements #passion #grit #purpose #purposedrivenlife #selfmotivation #adjustmentperiod #growth #professionalgrowth #steppingout #comfortzone #change #challenges #challengingtime

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Can I help senior developers? 🧐 Yes! In fact, my course was developed after watching thousands of senior developers make the same mistakes, over and over again, in how they present themselves via LinkedIn, résumé or during the interview. Telling senior developers that they are not great at something is a HARD sell! 🤭 The developers that did listen, at first, were juniors and those trying to break into tech. The truth is that the problems are the same. Whe those on my course land jobs, they often tell me that they endeavour to return when they need my help for the next career jump. I respond by stating that if they have listened ... they won't need me 🤯😲 What REALLY blows their minds is when I remind them that if they do come back for further help .... it's FREE. I will help you forever 🙇 #seniorsoftwareengineer #seniordeveloper #career #developer

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The current job market for juniors is tough. With all the layoffs, even experienced pros are struggling to find jobs. AI in coding just makes senior developers more efficient, so fewer are needed. This reality is making the rich even richer. Junior getting responses on their CV now is a small victory in a challenging landscape. It's crucial to stay focused, prepared, and confident despite the market’s difficulties. Remember, every professional started somewhere, even in tough times. Embrace the journey, learn from each experience, and keep pushing forward. Your dream job is out there—stay resilient!

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Did Stack Overflow contributors work against their future interests? Back in 2012, while I was only working as a teaching assistant in the Computer Science department, we had a pause in our commercial projects. I wasn’t coding at all during those days. My great friend Danilo Vulović told me how he started to reply to Stack Overflow questions and was harvesting upvotes. So I started too. Oh boy, how fun it was! Not only did I improve my programming skills by trying to find solutions as fast as possible, giving decent descriptions to OPs, and commenting on suggested solutions, but I also had a sense of helping and giving back to the community I had only taken from before. We even started a race to see who would have the higher reputation by the end of that year. In the next two years, I really committed my time to contributing to Stack Overflow. Even today, my reputation there is 8500+ points, and I always advocate to my students and colleagues to upvote useful answers and show appreciation to the contributor. But where does this lead? I can’t help but think how such massive data, available from Stack Overflow and other software development forums, actually helped LLMs be trained for code generation. It had everything that was needed: the context, different potential solutions, and the best-accepted solution. If I were to think about what would be the best dataset to use to train AI to code, it would be Stack Overflow. Obviously, GitHub has much more data, and with pull requests and comments, there is a lot of context tied to the code as well. Hmm, did Microsoft purchase GitHub only to have access to training data for AI? Ultimately, my thinking is, could it be that all of us contributors to Stack Overflow, forums, open source projects, and users of free and public repositories helped build tools that will be seen as our replacements? I still think that I should teach someone to understand the Dijkstra shortest path algorithm instead of just asking Copilot to embed it into the code. But today, everybody is asking Copilot or ChatGPT and not on Stack Overflow, which might reduce the quality of data for future training. Stack Overflow definitely shut down their questions feed for access from outside of the website to prevent giving its data for training for free. What are your thoughts?

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What is your perfect developer look like? Everyone who has been hiring even once in life wants to find that one perfect candidate who will take your company to unbelievable wins. I don`t know how you are, but I saw a lot of job ads that just screamed that this job is for the Chosen one only and if you are not - you have no chance to get the offer. So, I decided to talk to you about what a perfect developer looks like. Let me be the first to describe this specialist. I will consider you as a perfect developer if you : ✅ don`t try to be “perfect” ✅ don`t afraid to say “I don`t know” ✅ don`t stop learning ✅ are curious, responsible and goal-oriented ✅ don`t lie and cheat ✅ always give honest feedback ✅ respect your team, clients and their time ✅ know how to do the job you were hired for ✅ flexible and adaptive ✅ don`t try to be the loudest person in the room Yes, in my list there are no diploma requirements or experience with the top world IT companies or ability to work overtime or on weekends. I don`t consider employees as slaves or robots or instruments to achieve my goals. First of all, I value the people I hire, their identity, desire to work, contribution to the company`s success. So, I beg you don't be too strict and picky. We are all humans after all. P.S. What does YOUR perfect developer look like? _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ Hi, I`m George Fironov - Talmatic`s CEO! My team and I can pick the right developer for the clients' project. DM 📩 me if you need my help and don`t forget to follow me and Talmatic to learn more about our services 🤗 #developer #hiringdevs #staffing

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3 most important things I'd like every junior (and even mid) developer job application to have and why? Let's start with what I care less about: - Uni degree - it does look nice but promises nothing - Nice CV - Motivational letter - most of them are c/p and generic What I do care about: ✅ GitHub account (or another public repository) showing that you work on your coding skills. The fact that your work is continuous. The fact that you've done something. The fact that you are working to learn to keep your code clean and maintainable. The fact that your commit messages make sense. The fact that you keep your README.mds nice and tidy. ✅ Algorithm skills showing you can think. One might argue that you don't use a lot of complex algorithms in everyday work. However, I value the fact that someone can think about an unfamiliar problem and find solutions for it. And then even work on optimization about it. So, having some solutions to Project Euler problems or Advent of Code tasks is definitely going to be a bonus in my eyes. ✅ Social media posts or (even better) blog posts on technical topics. In my eyes it shows that not only do you understand what you are talking about, but you can also discuss it in a precise voice that a broader audience can understand. In development world this is a rare superskill not everyone has. Talks at conferences or meetups have a similar weight in my eyes. This is what would get you to an interview if you're applying to a job in my team. What would you add? What should I pay close(r) attention to? #softwaredevelopment

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