Stefan Negrus

📢 Attention Job Seekers! 📢 As an engineering manager, I've had the privilege of reviewing countless CVs. One common mistake I keep seeing is the focus on listing initiatives rather than showcasing their measurable impacts. I've written an article, "The Number 1 Mistake I Saw in CVs as a Hiring Manager," to help you understand how to make your CV stand out. 🎯 In this piece, I dive into: 🔹 The pitfall of just listing projects 🔹 The power of quantifiable achievements 🔹 How to transform your initiatives into compelling, number-driven statements 🔹 Real examples that demonstrate the difference 💡 Key Takeaway: It's not just about what you did—it's about what you achieved. Numbers are powerful. They provide clear evidence of your contributions and the value you can bring to a new role. 🔗 Read the full article here Take a few minutes to read and revamp your CV. Trust me, it will make a difference. Let's get you that dream job! 🚀 Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or need further guidance. Your career success is important to me! #JobSearch #CareerAdvice #Engineering #TechCareers #CVTips #QuantifiableResults #HiringManager #ResumeTips

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Check out the blog post written by Tomasz Richert (Manager, Engineering at #AllegroTech), which is a case study of how we improved stability in our critical application. It’s mostly a technical analysis of what happens in fresh #Java based instance, how JIT Compiler toyed with us at application start and how we learned to control it. Enjoy reading on: https://lnkd.in/d_BP4g8i #microservice #performance #JVM #compiler

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During lunch a few weeks ago, someone asked one of the developers in my team how long it would take to write one of our internal-facing systems from scratch. He looked at me and said: "Something like 3 months, right Anton?" And I replied: "Closer to 6. And then 3 more years to add all the edge cases". The longer the code exists - the more stable it is. When I started leading my team 2.5 years ago, I was given a legacy system to support, that nobody really knew. So far, it had maybe 2 small problems due to external API changes, and is just working flawlessly… 𝗖𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗲 - 𝗶𝘁 𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗹. Vadim Kravcenko wrote a great article about it: https://lnkd.in/dCC8QcTe P.S. Who do you think will win the fight in the image? :) Join 12,700+ engineering leaders for weekly articles on leading software teams: https://lnkd.in/dmvYbssM

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Why I like Kotlin - https://lnkd.in/diQp6tjv Short post simply because this is an opinion and not a huge topic. I am working with Java again for a while and Java 21 does make me happy but I miss some things from Kotlin so I thought I should put my thoughts in a blog ... #programming #kotlin #java

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Zuplo was super easy for me to integrate with my web API using only a couple of steps: 1) I needed to forward traffic from Zuplo to my server. This was done with "one line", if I can even call it that, in the Zuplo portal. Given my path on Zuplo, I just had to pick an option in their UI to rewrite and tell it what URL to go to. So far, so good. We like easy. 2) I needed to lock down my server. I want Zuplo to be the "front door" to my web API, but I still have to expose my service so that Zuplo can access it! To do this, I added an API key that my server knows about and Zuplo is configured to use. This means that Zuplo is the only outside source that knows the "secret" to talking with my web API. While my service could technically be discovered and callers could try hitting routes, they'll all be very quickly rejected. 3) ... to be continued! This is where all the *extra* stuff can get added: - Auth - Rate limiting - Monetization - Analytics - Documentation ALL OF IT done through Zuplo. That makes my life MUCH easier 😄 Check out more Zuplo here: https://lnkd.in/giqBk786 Stay tuned for the video coming this Friday on how I modified my ASCII art API to work with Zuplo! This Saturday's newsletter will walk through in more detail. #zuplo #api #webdev #aspnetcore

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Launching Mage.ai locally. The easy start ended up in a total disaster. I need to read more before making my first ETL... https://lnkd.in/dYui3KSy

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Today I have applied for the participation in Junction 2024 - back offline hackathon. It’s me, Igor Vernichenko and Aarni Pavlidi who will try to come up with something super exciting for the second time. Or have just fun as we did last time. #junction2024 #helsinkievents #backoffline #hackathon2024 #junction #hackathon

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It's Q&A Monday: Another interesting question slide in my DMs:  Do you teach real applications or just examples? To provide some context, I was teacher in the University for more than 10 years in undergraduate and graduate courses in Software Engineering and also seasonal mentor of boot camps for 5 years. Now I have been working in the industry for more than 9 years. I understand that "real" applications distant a lot from examples in the classroom, but your main responsibility as "teacher" is providing confidence to the person that is learning, creating a safe learning space where people can ask anything, they need to be comfortable making mistakes, because errors are the greatest way to learn, you will never forget about it. Making sure that people are getting solid foundations is clearing the path to grow. Yes, the examples are not "real" applications, in fact they are pieces of "real" applications to learn a specific concept, actually there is no A "real" application that can you teach everything, because each application has different requirements, that's the joy of software engineering!! Happy coding!!! #coding #learning #software #programming

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I wrote a blog post about the Vivaldi web browser from Vivaldi Technologies and why I use it as my primary browser. This post also contains links to a related video I created on the topic and a Vivaldi Community Talk conversation that I participated in. https://lnkd.in/duSATdt8 #Vivaldi #VivaldiBrowser #OnlineCommunity #WebBrowser #Browser #WorkProductivity

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🚨 **Important Concern for the Software Community** 🚨 A few days ago, I was approached on LinkedIn about a remote opportunity, and, yesterday, I received a call from another individual regarding a similar job offer. However, the description of the role raised a serious red flag. The "opportunity" required me to impersonate someone else during an interview, using a CV of some US citizen. Essentially, they were asking me to commit fraud by defending someone else's experience as my own. This practice is deeply unethical and harmful, not only to the individual but to the broader tech community. For professionals in Pakistan, this could become a serious issue. Such behavior can severely damage the trust we’ve built with foreign clients, potentially tainting our country’s image in the global tech industry. To those encouraging or participating in this kind of fraud: please consider the long-term consequences. You're not just hurting yourself—you're harming the reputation of an entire community. We must work together to discourage these unethical practices and promote integrity in all that we do. Let's keep professionalism at the core of our careers and ensure that our success is built on honesty and skill, not deception. #SoftwareEngineering #Ethics #Professionalism #FraudPrevention #Integrity

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🚨 4:23 AM: The Battle with Gradle 🚨 Yes, it’s 4:23 AM, and I’m still here, battling through a stubborn "Gradle Error" that decided to crash my app build. Hours of effort—updating plugins, tweaking gradle-wrapper.properties—and finally, the app is back on track. Coding isn’t just about knowing how to fix things; it’s about persistence, patience, and understanding why issues happen. Tonight (or should I say this morning), I pushed through, learned a ton, and emerged a little stronger as a developer. Sometimes the late nights pay off in lessons learned. Here’s to the grind and the growth that comes with it. #code

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A company I have worked at did not believe in unit tests. The major claim was: “It is a waste of time!” Recently I have convinced the engineering management to accommodate the unit tests approach in the FE and BE development process. Developers started to write tests. I made some reviews selectively(just to be sure that enabling code coverage policy in the pipeline will not fail 99% of PRs) and discovered that developers write one test for the happy flow!!! After a small talk, I discovered I missed one significant detail: the code can hardly be testable. Moving the entire engineering department to a TDD(Test Driven Development) approach with an existing code base (and existing mindset) was much more challenging than I initially thought. At that point, I proposed an intermediate approach: TIM (Test In Mind). TIM says: start thinking about the tests just when you start writing the first line of the code, even when you make the design.  At this specific moment ask yourself: “How will I test it? How will I mock all the dependencies?” Guess what: it worked !! People began to write code covered by tests!!  Eventually, they will make one step forward and will TDD.

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Many developers complain that it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a project due to market instability. Yes, the market is unstable, and unfortunately, layoffs are still happening. Finding a job is challenging now, but not impossible. After screening more than 100 people for our team, I can say that developers often can't find jobs not because of the market, but because of themselves. No offense, but half of the developers completely lack even basic skills: - Communication - Self-presentation - Candidates don’t read about the company activities before the interview - No updated and well-structured resume - English - Joining a call with bad sound and a messy background (the list could go on) These mistakes could easily be avoided with a little attention and effort. Invest time in polishing your skills, both technical and soft. These changes can dramatically improve your chances, even in a challenging market. At the end of the day, finding a job is challenging, but not impossible, and you're in control.

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Yesterday, I wrote about how ChatGPT 4o made some mistakes in interpreting a complex legal agreement. Today, I'll cover the same task using Claude 3.5 Sonnet. I reviewed the contract and confirmed the steps for performing the calculation. As I suspected, ChatGPT’s initial calculation summary was incorrect. Perhaps something about the structured way the contract was written created difficulties for ChatGPT. It needed to derive the necessary calculation steps from two separate areas of the contract. Achieving this required understanding financial terms and the conditional relationship between the two sections. Instead, maybe ChatGPT interpreted the second section as overriding the first. I gave Claude 3.5 Sonnet the same initial prompts as ChatGPT. Unlike ChatGPT, Claude correctly outlined the calculations without further prompting. But Claude still made a severe error. Unlike ChatGPT, its outline of the surprising terms got one wrong. Among the surprising terms, Claude claimed that if Y happened, C would not occur. A correct document reading showed that if Y happened, C would happen — the opposite of Claude’s claim. Like ChatGPT’s error, I think this mistake stemmed from the challenges of a highly structured document. In this case, the outcomes surrounding Y had been revised; a supplement attached to the original document reversed what the original contract outlined. As with ChatGPT, I asked Claude if it was sure about how Y was handled. Much like ChatGPT, Claude realized its mistake and correctly interpreted the document. Tomorrow, I'll summarize my suggestions for reviewing documents using LLMs. In the meantime, you can watch some of my AI Engineer World's Fair videos:

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A few weeks ago, a company contacted me for a no-code developer position. You know the routine: “Your profile is unique, blah blah blah.” I replied politely, thanking them for the opportunity but clarifying that I had no experience in the no-code realm—honestly, I wasn’t even sure if I’d heard of it before. They assured me that experience wasn’t an issue and asked if I’d be interested in an interview to discuss the position. I agreed and listened to the proposal. Soon after, they sent me a challenge: a three-day task to build a fully functional to-do list app. It had to include a backend with full CRUD capabilities (Create, Read, Update, Delete), along with a login and sign-up feature. No pressure, right? Despite being brand new to the tech, I dove in. Not only did I get everything done in two days, but I also added some extra security. I implemented an auth token in the backend, making the login and data storage more secure – because who doesn’t appreciate a safe, reliable backend? So, I recorded a demo video, double-checked everything, and sent it in. Here’s the twist: they never even tested it. To this day, they haven’t logged in to check if the backend works, if the CRUD functionality is solid, or if the security setup even makes sense. I went the extra mile to deliver a polished, fully functional app, taking time to understand new tech, create a robust backend, and make sure it was as secure as possible. I’ll leave my conclusion blank for now. https://lnkd.in/dpTf4zdi

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Not only is it a super sexy smol MoE model, but all of its *data* is fully available as well! Now *that* is what I call open-source. Probably needs a new name, to distinguish it from the models which are open-source code (everybody), and completely freely useable (i.e. totally permissive license: much fewer players), *and* now also all the training data (almost nobody).

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There is a new open weights model on the Hugging Face, called MiniCPM V2.6 by OpenBMB. Of course, I tried it locally on my personal MacBook Pro and the HuggingFace space. I used a receipt from two days ago as the input image and asked some questions about the image, including an attempt to extract all the text from the receipt image and format the output in a JSON format. The model wrote the JSON format correctly, but it was not in the video. Perhaps it was because I didn't provide a few-shot examples for the model. Considering the model's size, it's an excellent model to tinker with. I'm not sure yet about running it on a production scale. Primarily because I didn't have enough time to explore the limits of this model. I'm interested in running it natively on the MacBook using the MLX framework instead of using PyTorch with the transformers module. Anyway, it was my first experience with the model. It's a good first impression. Links to the video: - Running locally on my MacBook Pro: https://lnkd.in/g7Du4jyw - Trying on the HuggingFace space demo: https://lnkd.in/gFXs2Rf2 Try it online at https://lnkd.in/ggDHQp7D See the model card at https://lnkd.in/gZ5PR4i4

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I am very impressed by the “Machines of Loving Grace” essay by Dario Amodei. It describes possible changes in 5-10 years after a powerful AI is developed and massively deployed. https://lnkd.in/dERCG3Mk I like the title. It’s from the “All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace” by Richard Brautigan. “I like to think (it has to be!) of a cybernetic ecology where we are free of our labors and joined back to nature, returned to our mammal brothers and sisters, and all watched over by machines of loving grace.” I also like that Dario doesn’t say how exactly we can build the powerful AI, but leaves the pointers to scaling laws and the bitter lesson in plain sight. There are basically two kinds of people in generative AI. Those that internalised the scaling laws / the bitter lesson, and those that haven’t. The Bitter Lesson by Rich Sutton is written in March 2019. If you didn’t read it yet, go and read it - https://lnkd.in/drZzfu99 It helps to understand why companies build enormous AI datacenters powered by compact nuclear reactors.

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