Not Just Another Software Developer
One of the challenges by many local HR teams in the offshore software development industry is the lack of available talent. Sad to say, many folks with an IT background are forced to take the other path — find a job outside the country or get a non-IT related job, most probably in the BPO industry.
This has become a real challenge even when ultimately — it is the overall personality that matters more than the technical skill set in the employment criteria.
I’d like to share to you some of the essential qualities we’re looking for in a software developer. And mind you, we’re really looking for software engineers, not just another software developer — or one that has the potential to be one.
Hope this helps interested applicants get a better understanding of the kind of culture that we live up to and help them prepare for their upcoming job interview with the Exist team.
(in random order)
1) Passion for learning. Initiative runs side by side the drive to learn. Who doesn’t want to work with people who are innately curious? Would you rather hire somebody who would only want to learn what is needed or would you rather hire somebody who’s naturally willing to “spend his/her night digging through countless documentations and manuals in order to learn that brand new, sexy technology?” We’re looking for people who already have experience but still can empty their cups, says Julz Cutaran, one of our prolific engineers who shares his passion for learning at Encounter with the Geek Kind.
2) Open-minded and Flexible. Deng Ching, an open source contributor and VP for Apache Archiva at the Apache Software Foundation, sees “open-mindedness” as a valuable trait. It’s difficult to work with someone who isn’t open to suggestions and who doesn’t know how to listen, Deng relates.
Jarrel Mallari, another developer at Exist, says that, “Some developers are often carried away by how a framework or technology elegantly solves a problem. They tend to focus on the nitty-gritty details rather than what their tasks really want to solve. There are also some who have “attachments” to solutions which they have used and have proven to work in the past, so they continue to believe that this all-encompassing solution can solve any problem related to the ones it previously solved. The reality is, this is not always the case. In fact, it’s almost always not the case. So a developer must always have an open mind and be flexible to really address what is at hand.”
3) An eye for elegant solutions to problems. We’re looking for people who can solve problems ELEGANTLY. Erle Mantos, who lives by the principle, “write code that writes code,” shares that “it follows that elegant solutions lead to elegant codes; I’ve shuddered at seeing too many cut-and-pasted codes on my previous projects.”
4) People who see software development as a passion, and not a job. These are people who see codes as sexy women on a beach, who gets high and intoxicated at the chance of working with/on an exciting technology, who is doing software development now, not because it was the “in” thing when he/she was in college, but because he/she cannot imagine life if he/she is not doing this sort of thing.
5) Team player, but independently capable and reliable. At Exist and for any given software project, it’s always about working with a team. We want to work with people who freely shares his/her ideas, says Marjun Pagalan, one of our Ruby on Rails developers.
Fundamentally, we’re looking for software engineers, not developers. Jonas Lim, contributor to several open source projects and geek at Exist, says that: engineers are people who can deliver solutions and not just crank up codes. They are those who can analyze the problem and have the initiative and drive to learn and adapt to new environments in order to deliver to clients the best possible solution.
These are the kind of folks who value the Manifesto for Software Craftsmanship, which Jo Eduardo, a tech evangelist at DevCon and Exist Java developer, avidly supports.
Frequently asked questions during an interview: What’s the most difficult software engineering task that you’ve encountered and tell us how you handled this? If it’s a programming task, tell us in detail how you had implemented the solution. Or tell us something about a task that you would deem as a failure and tell us how you had dealt with it?
How do you act under pressure? Are you results-oriented? How quickly can you learn/adapt?
So our advice? Applicants should be prepared to present evidence that they have what it takes to become a software engineer. Jonas adds that, “I personally think the technical part is always the easy part since this is mainly black and white. The hard part is dissecting his/her attitude.”
The basic concept here is that we’re looking for people like us and that you have got to be able to ride the same bus that we’re riding. Be truthful and don’t just tell us what we want to know. Wow us with your story!
And remember to ask questions.
If you think you’ve got what it takes to be part of our team, we’d be happy to chat with you. Send us a note about yourself.
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