Which of these descriptions best fits your software development team? (1) The team is highly integrated with the rest of the company and its customers. (2) The team is shoved off in a corner. If your circumstances more closely match the first scenario, well done you. By design or by accident, your structure is helping […]
Who is the happy Warrior? Who is he That every man in arms should wish to be? (William Wordsworth, 1807) If you're at all inclined to read poetry, William Wordsworth describes in extensive detail who The Happy Warrior is. Among other things, "his high endeavours are an inward light that makes the path before him […]
This is my 4th and final article about my experiences choosing a new modern tech stack. I originally described my requirements and process for choosing a stack, detailed why Angular didn't meet my needs, and then took a detour through some common build tools. In this article I'll talk about the framework I selected and […]
Over the years, I've collected a surprisingly long list of things you can do--or not do--that can make or break an interview. I selected the ones that I think are the most important and impactful. I recommend that candidates take the time to review this list both at home as well as shortly before going […]
This year I had the opportunity join my Stout Systems colleagues at CodeMash for the first time. If you’re not familiar with it, CodeMash is a software developers’ conference hosted in Sandusky, Ohio each January. Apparently, it’s a tradition that CodeMash’s opening or closing be marked by a blizzard, and this year did not disappoint! […]
I hate buying a new car. As if driving to multiple dealerships and test-driving a dozen or more vehicles isn't bad enough, I then ultimately have to agonize over choosing between my top two or three picks. Not a lot of fun for an over-analyzer like myself. Yet it seems that so much of life […]
Tech Stack Modernization Volumes 1 and 2 covered my thought process behind modernization and a review of Angular. Volume 4 will review my selected framework, (spoiler: it's Vue.JS), but before I get there I want to write a bit about Webpack and NPM. Both of these are tools that can be used with any tech […]
As we approach the end of another year, I once again encourage everyone to take advantage of any holiday down-time to spend a few moments updating their resume. But why would I recommend this for people who aren't even looking? Following are just a couple of real-life examples I've seen recently. Companies are more fluid […]
When "Pull" is Insufficient Software developers live in a pull first world. Even modern single page applications (SPAs), while highly interactive and responsive, only respond to change when the client initiates it. A user sees a list of work orders, and the list doesn't update unless that person requests an update, either by refreshing the […]
Previously, I've dealt with the topic of how to handle gaps in your employment history, but one gap that can be particularly troublesome is the one at the very top of your resume if you have been out of work for some time. No one raises an eyebrow if your last date of employment was […]