It’s all about Angular

With the release of Angular 4 last month and a new JavaScript framework in what feels like every 5 minutes, I wanted to find out what exactly was going on.

To get a grasp of what’s happening with one of the most popular frameworks used in web development I caught up with Meligy. Meligy runs the Angular usergroup: ng-Sydney and is also a senior consultant at Readify (so you know he’s good).

Meligy explained what’s it all about. The Angular 4 upgrade, how this is affecting the community, differences between AngularJS, Angular2 and now Angular.

What also unravelled is Meligy’s fascinating journey from being a backend focused developer to falling in love with client side programming.

Here’s what went down:

Sam: So what’s new with AngularJS?

Meligy: Firstly we’ve got to be careful when referring to AngularJS now as the creators won’t like it, as, AngularJS is for version 1. For version 2 onwards, we can refer to this as Angular.

SE: Yeah, I’ve heard this! Everything from now on won’t be Angular 4 or 5 – it’s just Angular.

M: Yeah that’s right. I’m mentoring 5 teams at the moment that are running Angular 2, 2 of which are upgrading to 4 already. I upgraded just yesterday and it took me a day (because of issues with a non-maintained 3rd party library not Angular itself). Upgrading from 2 to 4 is seamless. Upgrading from 1 to 2 is probably too much, might not even bother!

SE: So what made AngularJS so good was also its biggest weakness?

M: The idea behind AngularJS was to that you could use it on any page, drop some JavaScript script on a page and get it going.

It worked very well, compared to Knockout, because it could detect your JavaScript changes without explicit code, but that caused performance issues when pages grew, too many things to track. The only way to make AngularJS faster was to disable features and this was a problem.

It was originally designed for designers to use and get something interactive without knowing too much JavaScript. Once developers started using it, it started to add more features, but due to backwards compatibility, the old features were still there. It was not obvious what features you should use and which you should avoid.

So Angular 2 (or just Angular) was born to fix this, which meant they had to rewrite the whole thing.

As the team likes to say it, AngularJS (v1) is a framework. Angular (today) is a platform.

It’s built on Typescript and comes all of its awesomeness. It comes with its own CLI tool to generate new projects, create optimized builds, and run your unit tests, which is creates skeletons for by default.

It is perfect for writing big single page web applications and especially BIG ones.

The ideal case is when your entire website is going to be a single page web application. and with the way things are going with web development most applications are heading this way anyway. Once you add some rich client interactions to your website, the users want more.

SE: What’s exciting about where Angular is going?

M: There are a few things happening, but the biggest one might be, server side rendering with Angular Universal.

Angular Universal allows to run Angular on the server, and then the generated HTML already has all the page information needed for some search engines, or for Facebook and Twitter previews when the user chooses to share the page.

It used to be a very close 3rd party work that the Angular team hosted on their official sites, but now it’s becoming part of the main Angular project itself. I expect it to get way better this year.

SE: What do you love about Angular 4?

M: What I really love about Angular 4 now actually doesn’t have to do with Angular 4, it’s that it is built on the latest version of Typescript. TypeScript 2.1 had a breaking change from 2.0, which forced Angular 2 to freeze support for TypeScript at 2.0. Now this situation is fixed, and unlikely to come up again, so the latest versions of Angular allow me to use the latest version of TypeScript as well.

Typescript just feels likes C#, you find silly errors at compile time instead of at run time. People can pick it up much easier than JavaScript and they are learning about JavaScript in a different way, because TypeScript packs the standard JavaScript features with the same syntax.

SE: What advice would you give people starting out in web development?

M: Play around with one framework/platform at a time. Spend two weeks with React.js, two weeks playing around with Angular, with Vue, you name it; and immerse yourself with them one at a time. This will allow you to decide what works best for you and you will be able to focus on this particular technology without being distracted by others.

JavaScript trends in Sydney

I saw this pic and actually Lol’d… With all of the buzz of Angular 4 being recently released, let’s put laughter aside and take a look at the JavaScript scene here is Sydney…

The battle between the two most popular frameworks, Angular and React continues in Sydney with quite an even split between both frameworks. I have noticed that React has been adopted at a much faster pace over the past year and it will be interesting to see the impact of Angular 4 which is currently in release. I personally know of one client that is rolling Angular 4 on their next project. It will be great see its impact in the tech scene here in Sydney.

Traditional enterprise sites seem to favour the popularity of Angular/2 and this doesn’t seem like it will shift anytime soon. It’ll be interesting to see how quickly they adopt Angular 4 having noticed sites that are rolling out projects with Angular 2. With only pockets of financial institutions looking to experiment with React.js it has been much more popular with digital agencies, start-ups & media.

Here’s the data:

Linkedin claims to have 11,594 engineers in Sydney with JavaScript as a skill set and are working with this in some capacity – however this will include full stack developers (.net, JAVA and JavaScript, front end developers, UI developers and possibly some UXD’s in there as well – who knows!)

After further digging (and insane Boolean searches) I discovered this:

There is 1430 engineers that are skilled up and are currently working with Angular.js (58%) – of the market (CBA, Westpac, BT Financial, Macquarie Group, Atlassian, IAG, TATA, ING Direct).

953 (38%) are skilled up and currently working with React JS (Biggest tech teams that support this are Atlassian, CBA, IAG, Domain.com.au, Qantas, Fairfax media, Nine, DiUS, William Hill).

While only 105 (4%) are currently working with Angular2 (AMP, Telstra, Macquarie Group, PWC) being the early adopters of this technology.

So from this data there are 2488 software engineers/front end developers in Sydney working with either Angular, Angular2, or React.js how this is represented visually is this:

*This data has been pulled from LinkedIn as of 24/03/17 and represents software engineers with active skills in either Angular.js, Angular2 or React.js

While I admit that this is not 100% accurate, it does give us a nice picture of what the JS world currently looks like in Sydney.

Did you Node?

With the popularity of Node.js ever increasing we are seeing more organisations adopt this technology as its server side programming and moving away from traditional ASP.net/Java environments. With early adopter’s in media, finance and various start-ups will we see this move into other industries?

This market pressure has been a contributing factor to increasing the price of contractor’s in this space; especially if you have been a part of the teams that were the early adopters of Node.js and have rolled out projects at an enterprise level previously.

Node.js is increasing popularity within financial services and any industry that has a heavy reliance on data with its advanced capabilities as a data visualisation tool.

Wow, this is great Sam – how does this help me and what should I do?

You can’t future proof your career by being an expert in a particular frame work. It moves too quickly, what’s hot today might not be tomorrow. Angular 3 got bypassed, Angular 4 is coming out yesterday and Angular 5 will be here for Christmas*.

What separates you as a developer/engineer is your knowledge of the fundamentals. The best engineers I have worked with over the past year have a clear understanding of algorithms and data structures. They have also developed exceptional ability with JavaScript from this knowledge. Here is a great article that explains this and what this looks like in the JavaScript world.

These engineers look to frameworks last, are not married to any particular one, and are interested in what tool is right for the particular problem at hand. These developers are always constantly learning about what works for what.

This curiosity and building on your knowledge future proofs your career in JavaScript software engineering. You can adapt and pivot frameworks as they will inevitably change.

Thoughts?

Thanks for reading!

Tips on Hiring JavaScript software engineers in today’s market

After a few long years I’m back and stoked to be able to relaunch this site.

The past year has been a roller coaster of finding my feet and grounding myself in the JavaScript community and I’m still just scraping the surface! It’s seen me place some amazing talent with clients that I’m proud to partner with.

These include some of the best start-ups, financial services, telco’s, media agencies and software development houses in Sydney.

They all have similar things in common – they value the service that I provide which is finding them talent in the software engineering space they aren’t able to source themselves. They also provide an environment that fosters growth, innovation, communication and provides a challenging working environment for their staff.

The awesome Front-end talent that I have worked with over the year are naturally drawn to these companies due to this environment – and funnily enough, even though the market has pushed candidate salary expectations through the roof, this is not the main driver for movement.

Engineering is constantly changing, and so are engineers. These people are pushing the boundaries of software engineering with this incredible technology. A quality engineer is thinking outside of the box in how they approach problems and deliver on these solutions.

What I have learnt in the last 12 months is this; whilst framework experience is ideal for short term hires and engagement, it should not be that important for long term permanent hires. This is because, and this is constant feedback that I get from the people that I do business with, technology can be taught (even bluffed). What is difficult to match is culture, attitude and habits.

One of the most imperative strategies for successful long term hires and in hiring talent (which I have adopted) is seeking out culture fit and be sure of quality software engineering practices.

Every framework can be taught and picked up quickly if people understand the fundamentals and have the right attitude. These candidates, who may not know React.js or Angular2 WILL NOW be able to pick them up quickly if provided the right environment. What they also offer is their ability to influence others of correct software engineering habits, bringing culture and correct engineering principles to your team.

Here are some tips for building long term sustainable teams of JavaScript software engineers:

• Have a team that foster’s innovation, growth and change
• Get people in your team that have knowledge of the fundamentals of software engineering and JavaScript
• Promote a continuous learning environment
• Don’t get caught up on particular framework knowledge when hiring – while it might be your need, attract good talent by offering this as a skillset to be taught NOT required.

I’d love your thoughts on this… please feel free to comment/share/like – if you ever want to reach out contact me on here, twitter @sydjstalent sam.elderfield@ambition.com.au

Picture credit goes to @seth_bergman thanks mate!

Cheers,

Sam

 

London calling…

My move to London has been pretty much everything that I expected and more. The weather has shifted from sunny to being cold, wet and miserable and my naivety has already landed me two colds! The pubs are warm and cosy, and there is plenty of sport to keep me entertained on the weekends.

London itself is an amazing city. There is so much action, hustle and bustle going on that I feel very welcome as a hungry recruiter.

Setting up a new cold desk was always going to be hard, there is the fact that no one knows you, there are PSL’s for companies that you aren’t on and relationships that you have to build. There is no denying what needs to be done to build the desk in front of me. Hitting the phone and getting out amongst the community to build relationships with the people I love to service.

Some funny things have happened over the past week that I’d like to point out. First is, the London market is so massive that what I specialised back in Sydney was actually quite a broad spectrum over here.  I’ve had the re calculate and have decided to specialise in mobile technologies (Front End Developer and Native Developers). I think later down the track I will purely focus in JavaScript developers as I’m there is a new gap in the market for them.

How this relates to the current business strategy of Ambition and the PSL’s that we are on is a bit of a shift in focus. Ambition in London has a solid brand from great professional relationships with numerous Asset Management and Insurance companies. The idea for me is to continue to service these where I can in their digital/marketing design teams. I’m also focusing on developing new relationships with external digital agencies and software teams that have a focus on mobility.

As what I see out there, mobility is the way of the future and there is currently a strong need for specialists in this space in the London market. I’m already starting to build a network of talented contractor’s in this space. JavaScript specialist’s, Responsive Design wizards, native iOS and Android, mobile UXD’s. If you are looking to skill up your team in either of these space’s then get in touch!

Interview with Sam Davies about UX across various Mobile Platforms

During my last week in Sydney, Ambition Technology hosted the regular monthly Sydney Mobile development meet up. This week we were joined by guest speaker Sam Davies from Bristol in the UK. Sam is an expert iOS developer and works for a company called Shinobi Tools. Before his presentation I was lucky enough to steal a few moments of his time to ask a quick few questions about his presentation and professional journey thus far. Click on the link below to access the interview.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VUZLHNhAAs&feature=c4-overview&list=UULdkRpdAy1fUPzganVaBbaQ

It’s been a great partnership between the Sydney Mobile Development community and Ambition over the last couple of months, and I have to admit I’m pretty upset that I’m not going to be a part of it for a while. I’ll be sure to get in touch with the new community in London!

Sydney Mobile Developers Meet-up, YoYo Button is here!

Last week I co-hosted the Sydney Monthly Mobile Meet-up with John Avery. It was an exciting event hosted in our board room at the Ambition offices in Sydney. We have been hosting the event for the last 3 months and each month it gets better and more packed!

This month we had close to 40 attendee’s and the beers, soft drinks and snacks were quickly consumed at lighting speed! Thanks Ambition!

This month Hugh Minson, from YoYo Button gave a quality presentation about this fantastic Sydney based start up and how it is going to revolutionise how app developers can make a crust from their apps and how brands can engage with their customers in a new innovative way!

YoYo Button’s product is essentially an app inside an app that allows app developers to monetise their product in a new and innovative way. It achieves this by offering its users rewards that appeal to the user and gear towards the specific app.

Quoted from their website: “YoYo button is a mobile engagement tool for brands, a new class of App monetisation for developers and for the consumer a chance to receive cool, relevant and unique rewards.” To find out more about YoYo Button click here.

If you are interested in presenting to a group of 30-50 mobile app developers in the Sydney area then please do not hesitate to get in touch! You can also become part of the Sydney Monthly Mobile Meet-up by clicking here. Can’t wait to see you all next month!

Know DevOps? Are you a talented PHP developer with an understanding of Apache Configuration?

That’s right the highly intelligent cat is back! And you should learn DevOps!

I’m working with a great start up company, well they are actually pretty established but still think and feel like a start up! They are looking for a talented PHP Developer with knowledge of DevOps to join their team!

This role requires experience in developing server-side applications. This great organisation with all the latest technologies, this client has state of the art offices making your environment enjoyable and creative.

Successful candidates will have proven experience working within a large scale DevOps mission critical environment. You will working with high-traffic servers, databases, third-party APIs and open source technologies to effectively design, implement and maintain complex and innovative technical solutions that reach a huge audience.

What you will be doing?

• Architect and manage running of web application and database servers.
• Liaise with internal and external developers to integrate, test and debug web applications with PHP5 and ZEND.
• Maintain a professional approach to documentation, including drafting initial functional specifications documents, server and project documentation.

 What technical skills you need to bring:

• Eat, sleep and breath the LAMP Stack
• Demonstrated high level competence in administering LAMP stack web application architectures, Apache configuration, web application tuning and load balancing strategies
• Experience with either Debian or Ubuntu
• You need to be particularly good at object-oriented PHP development
• Knowledge of ZEND framework
• Experience with PHP 5
• You got to know MySQL database servers, failover techniques and schema optimisation for high-demand online applications.
• Knowledge of AWS will be highly advantageous
• Knowledge of database backup, load testing, source-control and continuous integration/deployment strategies.

What else is required:

• Tertiary level Computer Science degree or equivalent.
• Excellent interpersonal skills – You got to have a personality!
• Strong verbal and written communication skills,
• Be able to get along with a group of diverse and talented professionals

What’s on offer?

• Chance to be part of a company that has a start up feel but the security of an established organisation
• Great company perks including, drinks fridge, ping pong table and casual attire.
• Great salary on offer with career progression
• Potential to work abroad later down the track

Ok you like this and you think you are the man/woman?!

Then apply now or contact Sam Elderfield on 9248 6228 or email: sam.elderfield@ambition.com.au

Paying up to $80,000 – Get in touch!

Ambition launches IKM testing!

Being a specialist recruiter, I’m often asked by my clients how can I tell weather my candidates are good at what they do? Often I probe and ask open questions that require a good technical understanding to give good answers. If a technical person can break down an answer and explain it to a non-technical person like me, it’s usually a pretty good sign.

However to add to our service, Ambition has recently subscribed to IKM Assessments. So as part of the recruitment process that we offer clients we can test people within these areas on an international level assessment.

About IKM :

IKM’s web-based assessments produce an objective and comprehensive profile of knowledge and skill of candidates and employees to enhance and optimize :

• Hiring
• Training
• Project Staffing
• Skill-Gap Analysis
• Benchmarking
• Career Development
• Certification

To find out more about IKM click here.   To find out how we can incorporate this into your recruitment strategy please do not hesitate to get in touch!
Sam Elderfield

9248 6228

sam.elderfield@ambition.com.au

My first Presentation about the Mobile Recruitment Market

Last night I had the honour of being able to present at the Sydney Mobile Developer Group meet up. It was the first time I have attended the event and was a bit nervous not having presented to a crowd of 50+ before. However, after meeting the other presenters and having a chat with John Avery before hand I soon eased in with the crowd and nerves quickly turned to excitement.

I was second up, I followed Laith who gave a great presentation of Back End As A Service – something that I had no idea about, but the audience was very engaged by his technically focused presentation. A lot of energy and questions soon followed.

I was a bit worried that my presentation about the recruitment market not going down the best in a room of developers, however I was delighted with the great discourse that was generated with my presentation. I didn’t have anything to worry about!

Chris Jones was last up. Jonsey gave an awesome presentation on tips for marketing mobile applications something- that was very deer to the hearts in everyone in the room.

Afterwards the pizza’s supplied by Ambition gave everyone a well deserved dinner and the $5 Heineken’s that flowed from the Flyover bar went down like a treat! Even though the night was packed with a lot of other events, NSW losing the Origin and Kevin Rudd retaking the country’s top job. If you are interested in coming to the next one you can sign up here

Thanks again to everyone who came and I’m looking forward to seeing you all at the next one!

Sam

PHP DevOps Professional Needed! Permanent Position | SYD CBD

 

This role requires experience in developing server-side applications. This iconic organisation with all the latest technologies, this client has state of the art offices making your environment enjoyable and creative.  If it’s you then get in touch!

Successful candidates will have proven experience working within a large scale DevOps mission critical environment. You will working with high-traffic servers, databases, third-party APIs and open source technologies to effectively design, implement and maintain complex and innovative technical solutions that reach a huge audience.

What you will be doing?

• Architect and manage running of web application and database servers.
• Consult and supervise on the development and deployment of dynamic web applications developed externally by third party vendors.
• Liaise with internal and external developers to integrate, test and debug web applications.
• Maintain a professional approach to documentation, including drafting initial functional specifications documents, server and project documentation.

 What technical skills you need to bring:

• Eat, sleep and breath the LAMP Stack
• You need to be particularly good at object-oriented PHP development, experience with MVC design patterns and working familiarity with at least one current MVC development framework e.g.Symfony, CodeIgniter or equivalent.
• You got to know MySQL database servers, failover techniques and schema optimisation for high-demand online applications.
• Experience with NoSQL (ie. MongoDB) will be pretty cool!
• Knowledge of database backup, load testing, source-control and continuous integration/deployment strategies.

What else is required:

• Tertiary level Computer Science degree or equivalent.
• Excellent interpersonal skills – You got to have a personality!
• Strong verbal and written communication skills,
• Be able to get along with a group of dirvese and talented professionals

Paying up to $90,000 – Get in touch!