Rob Greenwood

Software Developers - 2023 was rubbish wasn't it? However the market is really improving with many more jobs opening up compared to last year. But - there are now a lot of engineers active in the market too.. So some advice.. ⬇ A common complaint now is that you are not hearing back after sending your CV for roles you know/think you are good for. Here are some small pointers from my own recent observations to get you in the door to start with. ✅ You are competing now... your first mistake is having an unattractive, un-readable CV. Think - if you were the hiring manager, would you like this CV? ✅ This is incredibly important for Frontend focused developers.. ⬆ ✅ Less is more... focus on roles you are good for, don't use the spray technique if you know deep down you are not suitable. It's not good for your mental health either to get unnecessary rejections. ✅ Focus on your application properly - If you are applying for a Frontend / React/FS engineer, don't have PHP or Java as a visual focus point as soon as the CV is opened... this applies to all tech roles... ✅ Follow up after a few days - don't sit back and think Linkedin will do it's magic for you once you have clicked submit. ✅ Read the job adverts carefully until the end.. there is usually important information about the working style / location / criteria. Again, saves disappointment and your own time later on. ✅ Attitude - be pleasant and positive throughout. It doesn't matter if you are nervous or maybe you think your english isn't the best, people hire people they want to work with regardless of previous achievements. Finally - interviewing. ✅ Practice and prepare for your interviews well. It might seem a given but know your current stack in-side and out, and any current trends in your area of tech/expertise. ✅ Ask your recruiter or ask the internal HR/talent if there is anything you need to prep/research on. ✅ And of course, have a list of interesting / relevant questions for each opening, and not always the same formulaic ones. ✅ Practice the commons ones - why did you leave the last role, what is clean code for you, what are some projects you failed on / were successful at. Why. ✅ ✅ Please don't give up.

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🤨🤯Why an organisation receiving very high volumes of applications for their DevOps/SRE roles can be counter productive🤯🤨 Yesterday I posted about the challenges organisations, and in particular Talent teams face when receiving high volumes of applications on their job postings😵 ⌚Time spent scrolling through applications that are nearly 90% not matching the job brief is not bringing businesses closer to filling those hard to fill vacancies Seeing your latest DevOps or SRE role receive high applications doesn't mean the market is rife with the perfect candidates just waiting to be called❌ ❓How can this be resolved & what measures should be taken❓ 🤓Organisations should take more time to tighten up their job adverts to make it crystal clear what is expected in the role 📃Do not post an exhaustive list of every tech stack going that creates ambiguity on what is actually required encouraging more people to apply ⚙️Be clear about the technical level/standard required for each skill - be honest about what is actually essential to be able to fulfil the role and do not mislead people on this (you will only reject them at technical interview stage) ❌STOP rolling ads "to see who is available" when the vacancy isn't signed off or live - this creates a situation that encourages people to "just apply and see what comes back" because they don't know what they may or may hear back from - it is polluting the job advert space & you won't hire anyone if it is not approved 📞Go back to everyone who has not been successful with feedback as to why - you posted the ad and wanted the response, it is only fair that people know why they haven't progressed 🙏Be honest about the role, environment and expectations, an job description should not be designed to draw people in with a fluffy non-realistic version of what the candidate will face walking through the door - If it is a hectic role with high expectations say it! 🧠Instead of posting your business critical DevOps/SRE roles as the first action, leverage your network, go back to past interviewees that performed well, and do some active headhunting - it is often the case that the right person for the role won't even know about the job unless you find them 🤖Candidates don't use AI to automate your job application process - your next job is one of the most important decisions you will make, so use your own brain to do so Job postings and adverts used to be a highly successful way for clients and candidates to find the perfect match for both parties. However with the vague and volume adverts that are not monitored or nurtured properly it is encouraging a free for all where people feel the need to apply for as much as possible just to get a few replies; and this is not good. Businesses need to address this and think more before posting an advert because it is doing more damage than good; but if done properly, and other measures are taken alongside this then I can guarantee this will benefit everyone😁

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What is DevOps? Everyone's view is different! I run up against it when you get take the requirement, run a few interviews and then get told not we are looking for we now need this. A lot of people are not entirely sure what they want or need but they know they need something. A lot of good insights in this article, many that I come up against when sourcing these guys for managers. #devops #hiring #scale #cloud #platform #sre https://lnkd.in/grkBpwuy

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This tech start up required two software engineers But had exhausted their recruitment channels Here's how we helped 👇 This tech start up had just received their six figure seed round investment. Excitement was quickly met with a stark realisation That they need to hire 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 software engineers, quickly, to scale the business, We consulted with the founding team on 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀, 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 and 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝘀. And championed their decision to try and recruit organically first. Three weeks later - "𝘞𝘦'𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘳𝘴, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘶𝘱 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴. 𝘋𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱?" Here's how our process looked.. ✍ Job briefing - Friday 6th September 📃 Five profiles shared - Thursday 12th September 💼 Five first stage interviews - Two final stage interviews 💹 Two offers accepted - Friday 20th September If you're looking to recruit organically first, 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗯𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗿𝗮𝗹𝘀. The A players you want - and need - aren't casually browsing job boards and LinkedIn for adverts. - Their skillset is in demand. - They have endless opportunities put their way. - They aren't (even) always looking at new opportunities. But we can help you identify - and interview - the right people. We're looking at consulting with one (maybe two) more start up from October onwards. If you're based in South Wales/South West and have between two and fifteen employees And want all the heavy lifting done for you? Message me. 📩 [email protected]

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🧑‍🏫 Got a couple of hours on a Friday afternoon and keen to see how you can use Zapier to create no/low code process automation from Pinpoint Applicant Tracking System (or any system that has webhooks and an API!)? * Send new starters to IT * Find out when a specific applicant is hired * Add new jobs to a Google Sheet * Update status of jobs in internal project management tools https://lnkd.in/eeGye6bn 🤓 (API key has been deleted!) #RPA #integrations #ats #lowcode #HR #HRTech #zapier #talentacquisition

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In other HUGE Monzo Bank news, they working with Google Cloud to create AND shape a data analytics hub that can help it grow with its customers 📈 ☁ 🏦 Monzo are multi-cloud and Google Cloud has been INTEGRAL in building its data analysis hub helping to provide them with data that can empower ALL of its teams to get the insights that can drive better business decisions. 🤖 🔎 As Monzo continue to grow, they are using ML to develop its NEW experimental customer demand forecasting system and has ALREADY completed early experiments for predicting outcomes related to customer experience and auto-complete search queries. To train its ML models, the bank analyzes data sets like its support help articles on BigQuery using Vertex AI as this way they can test, build, AND monitor ML models as it continues to refine and iterate on them. 👨‍💻 “We generate a lot of data on our back end and also on our front end, from our systems, services, and our customers using the app,” says Suhail Patel Senior Staff Engineer at Monzo. “We use that in a multitude of ways, for example, to provide better customer support by sharing insights with customers about how they’re spending their money.” “With BigQuery we can have all the data we need to effectively make business-critical decisions, and analyze the impact of complex incidents when something goes wrong. For us, this is like having a superpower,” “We empower all of our engineers and all of our technical staff with BigQuery data across the organization,” says Patel. “We leverage BigQuery’s scale and capabilities to run complex pipelines and data modeling to surface detailed customer and business insights.” “As Google Cloud team operates both within the UK and across other markets, their geographical reach is a key strategic advantage which aligns with our global ambition” Read more on the link below! 👇 Irina Sukhikh TS Anil AJ Coyne Fernando Fanton Matej Pfajfar Kirby Mosenthal David Brewerton #monzo #googlecloud #cloudbanking #dataanalytics #digitalbank #customerexperience #multicloud #bigquery #machinelearning

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I really enjoyed this talk - it's a great story about Monzo Bank's adoption of #Karpenter on #EKS and potential pitfalls when running in large ENVs. It resulted in cost reduction, flexibility and allowed quick experimentation. Also good reminder to use: Pod Topology Webhook events and Pod Topology Spread Constraints. #KCDUK #cloud #CloudNative #Kubernetes

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What value do you place on TRUST when leading software engineering teams? This is the first clip from my podcast with John Barnett BSc (Hons) PSM1 on leading effective software engineering teams. A really insightful and enjoyable chat with John, in this section he discusses the need for trust in the team, how to build it and how to explain changes in practices with the teams trust and involvement. Thanks John!!!

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93% of UK businesses say there is an IT skills gap! According to a 2023 Forbes report, there are a number of factors contributing to this skills gap including: 💻Rapid technological advancement 🏋️‍♀️Insufficient training opportunities 🏫Lack of relevant educational programmes 💪Competitive job market 💰Salary disaprities between industries X4 Technology are experts with over 15 years experience in the UK tech market, get in touch if you want to learn more about how we can help your company overcome your staffing pain points. #technology #skillsgap #hiring

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What do you think are the top factors impacting tech contractors this year ❓   💬 If you engage with tech contractors or you’re working as one we want to hear your views! Take our 10-minute survey before 7th May and you could win a £250 retail voucher (link in the comment section below)

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☎ I was approached just over 2 weeks ago (I've had 3 honest conversations since) by a business that has been trying to hire 2 Platform Engineers for 7 months. 📲 The reason for contacting me (besides being DanOps) was that these roles had become critical to their current and future success. 1️⃣ After the first conversation with the talent team (they were quite reluctant to speak with me), we were in no position to help due to certain parameters: ❌ Salary below market average ❌ 5 days in the office a week ❌ "Expert" (if any) Kubernetes experience ❌ Interview process of 5 stages, taking 6-8 weeks on average 2️⃣ During the second conversation, we spoke with the hiring manager and the talent team, gaining some traction: ✅ On salary, we agreed to hire a Senior and Mid-level engineer, allowing for a higher senior budget and growth opportunities ❌ 5 days a week in the office was still expected, but some case studies were used and discussed ✅ Removed the word "expert" and sought someone who could own their K8s journey ✅ Streamlined the interview process to 3 stages, aiming for a 2-week end-to-end process 3️⃣ In the third conversation, the hiring manager and talent team negotiated further adjustments (both were delighted), resulting in a process that allowed us to help: Salary improved slightly ✅ 1 day a week in the office required ✅ Clarified immediate and long-term technical requirements ✅ I was trusted to conduct the first interview/screening, reducing the process to 2 stages, within 2 weeks, aiming for sooner ✅ Terms of business agreed 🍻 🥂 I'm pleased to announce that both roles have since been filled. If you have a hire to make and want to save time with guaranteed people to fit your business, reach out to me at [email protected]. 🍻 🥂 #DanOps #hiring #DevOps #PlatformEngineers #focused on #quality #communityfocused #communitybased #community #recruitment

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Nothing beats the feeling of signing new TOBs. Except maybe... Watching Floats users sign new TOBs. When Thomas Clark signed up for a trial, I knew he would get it. How did I know? We had been competitors in DevOps recruitment for quite a few years. I understood the calibre of people he worked with, so if we came into competition, I knew I'd have to bring my A-game. Thankfully, it didn't happen too often. Now, If any DevOps engineers in my network are looking for a new gig. Thomas might have something for you. #recruitment #marketing #DevOps

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Well that was a trip, decided to move timwise.co.uk to 0x5.uk and go all in on the nerd chic.... out come the yaks and gremlins of internet infrastructure. Github pages redirections broke. GoDaddy can't redirect anything but the root path. Moved the old domain to dnssimple to fix that... you don't get https redirection without the £30/month plan and it's not obvious. Buttondown automated rss-to-email choked, couldn't re-enable it because the paid plan had stopped working so had to re-upgrade that. Finally got almost everything working and redirecting again now, apart from the http -> https redirection with github pages that just seems to be broken, support ticket raised... So much for zero downtime! Imagine if it was a domain that actually mattered, like an ecommerce site! Thank goodness as a professional dev I usually have DevOps and infrastructure experts to hand!

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Quick gauge of opinion - thinking of writing a talk called "Financial Literacy for Engineers" (aka everything you need to know about savings, investments and pensions but never asked for techies) ? I've been doing a whole heap of financial planning stuff recently and I've sharing bits of my plans with colleagues and friends. I get the impression that even for highly technical engineers the level of financial literacy is quite low ? Certainly a common theme of "I put into the work pension and I'll deal with pensions and stuff later coz I got bills to pay". Another common theme I see amongst my peers who are at that point is they wish they had started planning earlier. So do you think some sort of talk at tech meetups about how all this finance stuff works and what you could be doing would be useful ? (I'm not offering financial advise just making people aware of things they "could" be doing). What do you all think ?

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Leadership in Platform Engineering is not for the faint-hearted🤯😅 If you are a Platform Engineer considering moving into a leadership role, here is some key advice you should take on board📢 I spoke to a Platform Engineering leader last week who has led multiple teams of up to 30 people whilst still being hands-on themselves. One big thing changed for them when going from a self sufficient engineer to a team leader🤔💭 ☁️Your responsibility now covers the WHOLE PROJECT ☁️Your objective is to achieve the BUSINESS GOALS ☁️You are not just responsible for your OWN DELIVERABLES ☁️Your COMMUNICATION SKILLS have to be excellent (even more than your technical ones) ☁️You have to be willing to PUT THE BUSINESS OBJECTIVES FIRST #platform #devops #tethr #leadership #engineering

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In this Azure DevOps Podcast episode, Deployments and Ops Using Octopus Deploy. https://lnkd.in/eJJPUDBd • Learn who Octopus Deploy is built for • Listen to the infrastructure as code in the cloud • Learn the team DevOps Engineer & the impact in the DevOps space #azuredevopspodcast #devops

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Microsoft Copilot references our recent Project Management blog written by Callum Taylor as a reference when looking for options to mitigate the Hashicorp License Change. Read the full blog: https://lnkd.in/eegQcuat And the detailed report: https://lnkd.in/e5e_PVyq #HashiCorp #Terraform #OpenTofu #ProjectManagement #RiskManagement #CloudNative #InternalDeveloperPlatform #PlatformEngineering #Microsoft #Copilot

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Want to sharpen your Terraform testing skills? Jayke Harrison explores how incorporating testing into your Terraform code can streamline the process of feature releases to your infrastructure at the recent DevOps Playground. ▶️ Catch up with the recording: https://lnkd.in/e2piFAgQ #DevOpsPlayground #DevOps #Terraform #testing

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Why do developers look for new work opportunities? Loads of reasons - career progression, a chance to learn new skills, more money, to ditch their sarcastic boss, free fruit in the office (not)… the list goes on. But a question I’m hearing from developers more and more often is whether the work a company does impacts society in a positive way. Like, would you rather work in gambling or save the turtles? I’m working with a Digital Agency in Brighton that only works with companies doing social good. For you, that might mean a clear conscience and a greater sense of purpose. What do they need? A Backend PHP Developer above junior level – roughly 2 years experience or more will do the trick. PHP and MySQL is the minimum required to be considered. There’s 13 people in the company and 6 in the tech team, and they're well looked after. Everyone gets a day off every other week (on top of weekends, of course!). Plus, they can be flexible around start/finish times etc to accommodate personal commitments like schools runs, for example. They’re paying up to £38k, with a bit of stretch for the right person, and they also do a profit share each year, which tends to work out at about 2/3k on top. Ideally they want someone in the office once or twice a week, but again there’s some flexibility here. It’s a quick 2-stage process, with no take home tech test, so if this sounds like you get in touch before someone else beats you to it! Send me a direct message on here or email me - [email protected]

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