Hey, this is the Daily Overpass. My name is Eric and I make apps.
Now today, let's ask the question how important is experience when hiring an app developer?
Okay, today let's hire a hypothetical.
Let's say you're going to hire an app developer and you have two different candidates.
You have one candidate who has 20 years software development experience, you know, a senior
guy like me.
And you have another candidate who has three years software development experience.
If money were no object and both candidates were asking the same amount of money, which
one would you hire?
Now, if you're a software developer you might be thinking that's not enough information.
The guy with twenty years experience might be working on other things that were completely
unrelated and the guy with three years experience may have been laser-focused on the technology
I'm looking after.
But if you're not a software developer, you would be saying, "Well, 3 years - 20 years,
I would want to say go with the guy with 20 years experience, right?
This is one of the things you have to think about if you're ever looking for a job as
a software developer, how do you quantify some of the things that might not be quantifiable?
I was looking at the website the other day for another app development company and one
of the headlines was "we have over 10 years development - 10 years app development experience.
Which might not seem like a lot but considering the app stores have only been around for ten
years, that is pretty good.
But, as a software developer myself, I was not impressed with that.
I would be more impressed if I saw some code samples, if I saw what technology they used,
what's the most recent technology they used and so forth.
And if ever you've worked with a software house or if ever you've worked with a software
developers, you know there are developers who - they may have 10 years experience, but
they haven't learned anything new in the last five.
They're just going through the motions and then you know someone else who's like - just
has a couple of years experience and they're deep into it.
Reading everything they can.
They're learning everything they can, they're constantly coding and they're razor-sharp.
So, for me - let's go back to my experience here, 20 years of software development experience,
a large part of that at least 3, 4, 5 years was like VB5, VB6 or Visual Basic 5 or Visual
Basic 6.
None of that will help anybody, but, you know what experience will help?
I know how to error-handle, I know that error-handling is important, I know when things go wrong
I know what things to look out for.
But all of that will not necessarily related to the code.
If you're gonna hire somebody to learn Flutter, I'm not your guy because I've never use Flutter
and I'm just getting started on it and I don't have the experience.
Wherein somebody has 3 years experience and just using Flutter and they released all kinds
of apps and they're putting things out there, they would be better.
And going back to the price, a lot of times when people are hiring software developers
they'll assume that the person who costs more is better than the person who costs less.
Because they think we run by some sort of scale.
But that's not usually the case either.
One person could charge more and be less experienced and some person could charge less and be more
experienced.
There was once time I was working a contract with someone and he was so good.
He may have been the best software developer I've ever worked with.
And we were both worked in the same contract and he's the one who got me the job coz we've
worked before in previous jobs.
One night at a pub we're talking and we mentioned our day rate as contractors and I was getting
paid more than he was and I had no idea how could that possibly be.
"You are so much better at this than I am.
You're so much more talented and everything like that."
I mean, I don't think - I don't think I probably should've told him that.
He probably be resentful afterwards.
I was making more money than him and it was just because I asked - just because I think
it was a self-confidence thing.
Once, somebody had told me the ideal software developer to hire is somebody with high skill
and low self-confidence.
And we don't know what's their worth yet.
Which sounded machiavellian to me.
It sounded terrible, but in a way it's true.
When I'm looking for a software developer, I'm looking for somebody who's just - the
years of experience don't matter to me so much.
It's more - even if it's a short amount of experience, how focused is that experience?
If they're only working with one technology, for example, I don't need somebody who pitched
themselves as I know Android but I also know PHP.
Coz most of the times I don't need the PHP.
But it's kinda nice to have a little bit of development experience.
A lot of these things transfer from one language to another like functions, encapsulations
and everything like that.
Anyway, my message today for those of you, guys, who are looking for software development
jobs, think about how can you quantify that.
On your CV, you know what I have on my CV for many years, was I had selling points.
So, you can say I had many years of software experience.
I've released these many apps.
I've had these many downloads across so many stores.
And I have all that.
And I have like executive summary at the top of your CV and then you have the jobs that
are listed.
A lot of the candidates I look at when I'm hiring somebody or when I'm hiring somebody
for other organization, their CV's are really bad because they lack that self-confidence
and that self-promotion.
So, it's something to think about if you're going to - like this company - like I said
I see a website, their headline says "This company have over 10 years of app development
experience" that was something quantifiable, they could do that.
They didn't just say we make apps, like I do, they had something quantifiable and if
you're looking that compared to others and you don't know anything about software development,
you might go towards that.
So anyway, just some thoughts for today.
You know, experience to me doesn't matter as much as it might do to other people who
don't know better.
But it is important in some ways but not in every way.
Anyway, that's my thoughts for today.
What do you, guys, think?
Do you disagree?
You might, too.
That's it for today.
I will take to you, guys, again tomorrow!