Gregory Morris

This Wednesday I will be coming to London for a Django Joggers, followed by some free time to meet people afterwards. If you would like to catch up, please let me know. Likewise, if you are looking for a Python or Django Developer currently and would like to understand more about what we do here at Foxley Talent, let me know where to meet and let's book a time. *link to our jog is in the comments, with the route planned too. #django #python #djangojoggers #djangosocial

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I speak with Junior Developers day in, day out asking me how they can stand out from the crowd. This is an excellent post with advice from a Tech Leader on how you can help yourself!

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I have just written a blog post with my top tips for Python and Django developers writing your Resume. This is available on the Foxley Talent website and I'll link in the comments too. In the post I covered my thoughts on what I like to see in these parts of the Resume: 👤 Personal Info 🗣 Personal Statement 📊 Skills Matrix 💼 Work History 🎓 Education ♻ Community Involvement 🎣 Personal Interests Having a good Resume will really set you up for your job search. It's such an important document to get right. If you are looking at the moment and want any advice on yours, I'll be happy to review if you send it over in a DM. #DjangoDeveloper #PythonDeveloper #ResumeTips #DjangoRecrutier

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What is it with job applications at the moment? 24 hours ago I posted a react developer role right before heading out for the rest of the day and I've come back this morning to 254 applicants, 57 connection requests and 42 linked in messages. Still working through them but at first glance the large majority aren't remotely suitable for various reasons including: 👉 No mention of React on the CV 👉 Not based in the right country 👉 Never worked in software or IT 👉 Not eligible to work in the UK There has to be a better way for everyone involved? It's incredibly time consuming screening applicants and filtering that list and good candidates get frustrated that they never hear back from recruiters and got lost in the shuffle. I have job board and linked in filters for out of country applicants and legal right to work in the UK + 4 pre-screening questions for react development experience but they don't seem to work. Does anyone have any ideas of better ways for this to work? Any new tools out there that can manage this? I'm Sam 🤝 I connect businesses with technology talent in the UK, USA & Canada ✔️ Tech managers & HR teams work with me to fill their niche vacancies 📈 Developers/Engineers use me to find their dream job 📞 02380 765 304  or 18572 440 919 📧 [email protected]

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Honestly it's not rocket science!!! 🚀 If you read a CV and moan the developer doesn't state the tech stack they are using in their current role, guess how annoying it is when a developer looks at your company advert and YOU don't advertise the tech stack they'll be using 🤯 There are some good Job Adverts and there are some shocking ones. I'll do a video next week with Jon Gould 🦊 offering some tips about what to include ✅ Have a good weekend everyone 👍 #jobadvert #jobdescription #python #django #softwarehiring #thefox

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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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"I saw a Senior Developer role advertised for £40,000 last week Josh" 🤯 This is what a candidate said to me yesterday. I have 45 calls lines up across Monday to Wednesday this week for a project I am working on for a SaaS company (Exciting!) One thing I noticed yesterday speaking to developers on how they are finding the market is that salary bandings are just so broad. I have seen it myself. 👀 There are companies that are paying what they need to to get the right talent in and doing some bl**dy good hiring 🔥 And then there are companies that I can't help but feel are still trying to take advantage of the market and paying way under the market value. What do you think? Are they trying to save the pennies, avoid paying more than their current staff (which need a pay rise) or do they just not have the budget? 🤷‍♂️ #softwarejobs #marketinsights #salaries

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What’s the JavaScript market like?? Is a question asked on pretty much every call I have at the moment. ✅ The JavaScript market is slowly bouncing back. We’ve seen an increase in job flow, also in direct adverts from both agency and client side which is great ( mostly on perm ). An uptick in perm roles is usually a good indicator of a strong market and contract will soon be to follow. Candidates are getting involved in multiple processes at once. ✅ Time to hire still seems slow. Interviews are taking longer and feedback is delayed. Clients are saying they are wanting to hire but wont move promptly on signing things off/starting the processes or making offers. ✅ There are more experienced candidates on the market. A lot of contracts weren’t extended so there are more people looking. ✅ Seasoned contractors are more open to taking an interesting perm role. In short, things are slowly but surely improving. Feel free to reach out if you have more questions. #hiring #JavaScript #UK

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Market update; June 2024.   I’m still receiving DMs from developers either out of work or struggling to find something new.   Here’s a bit of a random dump from me, based on chats I’ve had with clients that might help. Definitely not all doom & gloom but I'm being honest also; - Applying to recession proof businesses; If you’re looking for a role, think about industries like health funds/insurance/utilities/superannuation etc; strong industries needed in our society that always have cash (usually). Whereas SAAS/product/Fintech seem to be trying to stay lean.. - CTOs; are telling me they have projects they need to kick off (platform re-architectures etc) but their CEOs aren’t giving them the budgets they need. It’s a case of doing their best with the team they have. This is another reason were seeing less roles advertised. - Doing more with less; There’s more pressure on senior & staff engineers to be able to demonstrate they have a solid understanding of tech but can also deliver at speed, meaning they have to focus on quality AND shipping, which in theory improves profit. Also with less hiring on-shore due to budget constraints, this means a leaner team, meaning existing teams have to deliver. - Junior engineers; To land roles, juniors need to show proactiveness and the ability to get things done. This would position them closer to the expectations of a mid which is what hiring managers want right now (theyre just not telling you). - Consultancies; A few businesses have reduced their local teams, to move to an outsourced model as they minimise perm headcount. This means these consulting businesses are busy and are hiring. So your Accentures/TCSs of the world could be good places to apply if you're looking? - New fin year; is approaching meaning new budgets & usually more roles. However this doesn’t mean from July 1 you’ll see a huge influx of roles posted. One CTO I chatted to has been given the same capex budget as he was for last year (not great). - Fully remote roles; becoming rarer. Most businesses require 2 days a week in office (some, not all). If remote is your jam, try to find work in startups/small businesses wheres theres flex (that said, I do know some corporates contradicting what they’re saying; letting some of their high performing contractors work interstate). - Ignore job boards; Roles are getting filled quickly due to so many candidates on the market & not even making it to the internet. Just because you don’t see a live role in a companies careers page, doesn’t mean they’re not hiring. If it’s a solid business, send them your details. - “I’m applying for roles and not hearing anything” and the likelihood is you never will unless selected for interview. Some companies will be getting 1000 applications a week for 1 role. They cant reply to everyone. Don’t take it personally. - The green banner debacle; it doesn’t make you look desperate. Stop worrying about it 😊 Hit me up if you need to chat; [email protected]

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This is one of the reasons I love Django and attending Django events ❤️ People aren't using the framework because they have to, or coming along to a conference because work paid for it. It's because they love using it and learning from others about how to benefit their work and projects! The latest JetBrains Survey for 2023 has been released and I will share further snippets I enjoy reading, but wanted to share this one first! 64% of developers use Django for both work, personal, education and side projects! 🎉 69% use the latest version! 🎉 Have you read the survey report yet? I'll add it in the comments if you want to check it out. #django #djangousersarethebest #djangofamily #jetbrains

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In the last 10 years recruiting Devs, I’ve only had 2 clients who insisted they needed to see a Computer Science Degree. Usually, most have it on their job specifications – but that’s normally just a tick-box HR exercise. Anyway, today it nearly became 3. I say nearly, because telling me “you won’t even open the CV if their CS Degree isn’t from Cambridge, Oxford or Imperial College” is hardly filling me with confidence. No shock, the role(s) have been open since last November, the salaries are way under market rate, and the interview process is 5 stages. I’m colourblind, and the red flags have never been so obvious. Recruitment might be tough at the moment, but ain’t nobody got time for that – Jack.

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Is your salary appraisal due? Want to know if your salary matches up with other .NET developers with similar experience in the North of England? Based on real and recent data, this guide outlines average salaries of: - Junior - Mid - Senior - Lead / Principal - Head of Dev If you'd like a free copy, drop me a message or email [email protected]

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It's evident the market hasn't picked up yet, but rest assured, it will bounce back eventually. In the meantime, if any hiring managers or recruiters out there want to chat with a JavaScript veteran and web developer with over 20 years of experience, get in touch now before I die of old age. Seriously, I've got grey hairs sprouting from all the React hooks and Node.js callbacks I've written. Let's connect before I start reminiscing about the good old days of jQuery over a cup of prune juice! HEY! and please comment, like and SHARE the hell out of this. Remember, KARMA will pay you back. :-) #OpenToWork #javascript #typescript #senior #developer #frontend #ui #reactjs #css #sass #express #mongoDB #agile #HTML

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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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Failing an interview at the cultural round (final stage). I’ve seen this start to rise in more interviews recently and the question I’d be keen to put to my network is: 𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐫 𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭? 🤐 I’ve seen the number increase of software engineers being declined at final stages ‘behaviourally’. A magnitude of reasons: arrogance shown, team player, cross team collaboration, energy. I can only think, if this is something to index on, shouldn’t we do this first? - Saves time - No technical bias to lean on The only downfall I can see and why companies aren’t doing this more often is It has the potential to be a brand killer. Enlighten me please folks! 💡

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IR35 / OPW: Update after all the Political Manifestos All the Political Manifestos came out this week. Here's my take on the IR35/Status position: [1] Labour: Rather silent on the whole worker status thing and rights thing. Nothing on IR35. The only way IR35 will change is when Labour do a review into the whole worker status aspect. The reports in the press where Labour plan to have a Single Worker Status are admirable, but it will require (yet another) consultation. Every time there has been a consultation on status, the report has been put in the politically too hard draw and left alone. The last one (I think), took years before a Government response, and after careful consideration, the Government decided to do nothing. Unravelling status the issue in the UK is like trying to refurbish a dilapidated Victorian house - too much to unpick, much better off with a rebuild. That said, it is highly likely Labour will be launching an independent review into the Loan Charge, which is linked to IR35 - IR35 being one of the main catalysts for the dodgy schemes entering the market. [2] Conservatives: Nothing interesting. No apology for what they have done. Too late to kiss and make up with the flexible workforce. A lame attempt by claiming they will abolish class 4 NICs for sole traders, but that misses the point. [3] Lib Dems: They get it. Ed Davey gets it. They understand the value of the flexible workforce. If they become the official opposition, as rumoured, they could have an influence. [4] Reform UK: They will abolish IR35. Yay. Reform UK are making great statements about the self-employed and small business. But, with few seats expected, not sure they will have much influence. The website Electoral Calculus may be helpful for you if you have not decided yet: https://lnkd.in/eJvwZWzF Whatever happens, let's all be kind to each other. Just remember, there's over half a million civil servants actually running the country, and whichever party gets it's hands on the wheel to the civil service tankership isn't going to turn it around in a hurry. #ir35

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This weeks podcast is a banger, talking about the future of software development - Automated Agile. I talk to Paul Glover from Burendo about how they are collaborating to utilise #AI in their delivery life-cycle to automate the software delivery process. Still at early stages they've seen some great results in driving efficiencies using tools such as Claude from Anthropic. Burendo are an #Agile delivery and product development consultancy, and Paul is a Principal Consultant in their team. Clip below and links to listen/watch in the comments 00:00 Introduction to Automated Agile 03:16 Understanding the Role of AI in Product Delivery 06:15 Practical Applications of Automated Agile 09:16 The Importance of Context in AI 12:10 Layering Information for Effective AI Use 15:14 The Human Element in AI and Consultancy 18:10 Innovation and Rapid Prototyping with AI 21:19 Future of AI in Product Development 25:55 Key Takeaways

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I'm in London to meet a client then have a few hours free from 2:30pm - 5:30pm if anyone fancies a coffee? ☕ Or better still, join me on our Django Joggers run along the Thames this evening if you want some exercise at a conversational pace 🏃‍♂️ Drop me a message if you'd like to meet & link in the comments if you are tempted for the jog 😏 #djangojoggers #djangosocial #django #python

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