Since Charles Babbage, an English mechanical engineer and polymath, originated the concept of a programmable computer, started the era of solving problems and optimizing solutions with the help of writing code. What makes the life of end-users easier. This is the life challenge of most developers.
A highly qualified developer is a valuable asset and the cornerstone for any software development company and beyond. Positive attitude, communication skills, time and task management, quick learning ability, deep technical experience, and more are among the many required skills of a 21st-century developer.
Here, at Flux, we follow and stay true to the dynamics of the market changes and challenges. In this regard, we sat with several of our prominent developers to discuss the qualities and the path that takes to the great developer from the perspectives of junior and senior developers, as well as keeping the gender balance.
Here are some KEY QUALITIES a developer needs to have:
- Eager to learn and become better;
- Dedicate and devote yourself to your profession and job;
- Possess technical, debugging, time management and research skills;
- Be creative and think out of the box for arriving at simple but genius solutions;
- Be agile and at the same time a good team player.
It started to sound like a job posting, didn’t it? The BACKGROUND needed to be able to succeed in the profession according to Flux developers include:
- MUST be passionate about your work;
- Need mathematical and analytical thinking;
- Better be smart and able to learn and practice in the process;
- Should possess good English;
- Should possess the earlier mentioned qualities.
As a developer, make sure you know what your tasks and roles are. This will allow you to work effectively and efficiently. Flux developers know that they must:
- Develop a maximum effective/well-functioning/technically correct code in a minimal period of time;
- Share knowledge and best practices;
- Build and extend team;
- Develop code which will comply with the existing best practices and have documentation — description of the work conducted and of the technical element;
- Be a team player and respect deadlines;
- Learn and grow.
We all know, it’s not enough to just get the job. What is a good developer without working on self-development! Flux developers share their methods of improving their SKILLS and KNOWLEDGE. Hence, if you want to get better at what you do:
- Make as much use as possible from current projects/issues you are working on;
- Take notes of the concepts and technologies met to research later;
- Discuss and share ideas with colleagues;
- Shift projects and accumulate ideas/techniques within the same project you work on and integrate them cross-projects;
- Use the Internet extensively: read books, articles, follow certain channels/people, use YouTube tutorials, use stackflow for quick solutions;
- In the end, take some time to digest the collected information.
The best environments reflect the best skills and practices. In that spirit, Flux developers believe the most comfortable ENVIRONMENT is:
- Silent;
- Sunny and welcoming;
- Non-formal, bright open-space;
- Full of supportive and caring colleagues without whom all the other office conveniences would mean nothing;
In Armenia, where for this generation of developers the choice of the profession is intuitive, market-driven choice, Flux developers claim that the decision came naturally after years of learning and listening about programming. It is a modern specialty with a lot of perspectives and something that we cannot imagine the future without.
In the meantime, what can the Armenian market offer, and are the expectations high? Flux developers believe that this is a field with a lot of potential and demand. Yet there is still a lot of room to grow and leverage its capacities.
And finally to conclude our interview we wanted to know how FLUX molded our developers as specialists and as humans. It turns out that:
- People see the company as a place to improve all types of skills (including English and technical) and gain new ones;
- The environment makes people more communicative, more appreciative of who they are and what they have;
- Flux enables to become a much better specialist in their respective field;
- With the team-building measures, Flux has created perfect conditions for integrating to new work-conditions and enjoying what you do;
- The company has enabled many to become more open in terms of meeting new people, sharing ideas and knowledge, be more organized, more detail-oriented and a better team member;
- Flux has shaped people as developers and the foundation was built well: there is always something new to learn from someone at Flux.
When results are expected and provided by developers, we sometimes forget to see the very core of it: where it all starts. And it starts from the HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT. Here is where the profession and its utmost goals and requirements are analyzed. Here is where the talent pool is searched inside out for the best fit for the company mission, the position, and the project requirements. And naturally enough we could not but extend this interview to the Flux HR team getting their insight on the topic.
To make things clearer let’s narrow down the pool a little bit since we cannot ignore the specificities the profession has in each market. So, after all, what’s the general level of developers in the Armenian market?
If we look at Flux experience in Armenia a few years back, the profession itself was not that popular as today, and thus there were not as many developers. So we see the result today: we do have really strong Senior Developers in Armenia, but not sufficient for the demand. On the other hand, we hope that this scope will expand, and the current Mid-Level Developers will put efforts into self development and grow into Senior level soon.
Does the Armenian IT field have specificities in this regard and what are they?
Well, considering the fact that the IT sector is the largest and the most dynamically developing sector in Armenia, it’s obvious that we face shortage of talents. Every day a new IT company is established, accordingly the demand for talents rises.
The second – the salary range of IT talents starting from junior to senior levels is not fairly distributed. This creates dissonance in the IT job market.
The third and the last one to mention is the brightness and the diversity of people in IT. They are somehow different: more open minded, more creative and more cheerful. We guess this is the major reason the IT sphere pulls people as a magnet.
Overall, are there any hiring nuances? What are the major difficulties/challenges when hiring developers in Armenia?
We can talk endlessly about the nuances since any HR block activity in IT has special and specific nuances. If we talk about challenges of hiring, then to fill the staff with people meeting the requirements of the company is the biggest challenge․ On the other hand, we cannot by any means lower our ranking criteria. Thus we face great difficulties. Still, we are happy that we never turn a blind eye on quality — it prevails.
It should also be noted that in general there are many challenges that are not conditioned by hiring only։ employer branding, constant development of the whole team of talents, further growth and motivation, creation and maintenance of a healthy and strong team. These are not directly related to hiring (though they indirectly impact the quality of the hiring process), but are no less powerful and complex issues than the very process of finding the talent. It’s like juggling many balls with one hand.
And, thus, to put together all that has already been said and confirmed, we can claim that this profession of the 21st century contains much potential, faces many challenges, and is true to the dynamic character it carries. It doesn’t take much, but at the same time not little to become and remain a necessary figure in the position of a developer: follow your heart!
