Given the uptick in people looking for roles right now, I thought I’d share some tips for getting hired as a developer. These tips are things I look for when hiring developers, honed over many years and countless interviews. My aim is to shed some light on what people over the other side of the […]
Building a calendar in Swift
In this post, I wanted to walk through an approach I used when building a calendar view in Swift for an iOS app I’m working on. The requirements were as follows: Should start from the current day, and then scroll backwards through time Each month is it’s own section, with corresponding header Days should be […]
Performance Review 101
The intention of Performance Review 101 is to give engineering managers an understanding of why we have this process, and what’s involved. I’m sure you’ve all been in one of these meetings, and no doubt loathed having to prepare. But you only get out as much as you put in, and they’re a great way […]
Setting up Netlify forms with Gatsby
I recently built a website using Gatsby, choosing to host it on the Netlify free tier. One of the features I wanted to try was form handling. Typically, handling form posts requires wiring up and hosting a backend to process requests. Netlify forms allows me deploy a simple static site with zero backend, letting them […]
What are the differences between Enterprise and Startups?
Having moved between these two types of company, I wanted to capture my thoughts on the differences between enterprise and startups. Why would you work for one over the other? Is one option the clear winner? Firstly, when I talk about enterprise and startups, what do I actually mean? For the context of this post, […]
The First 90 Days
The First 90 Days by Michael D. Watkins is a must read for anyone looking to change role in their career. This means not only moving to a new company, but being promoted or even changing career. It details a set of methodologies which, if used, will ensure you succeed by contributing value as fast […]
Time hacking with the Trello API
Following on from my post about using time effectively, I thought I would deep dive into a tool I created using the Trello API. The reason behind this work was that I had multiple Trello boards and projects in flight, each using a Kanban column layout. I needed a way to see all of the […]
How to effectively use your time
Effective use of your time can make a real difference to the impact you have. By employing good organisational techniques, you can achieve much more in those valuable hours than otherwise. Following the lessons I learned as a manager, I wanted to run through a couple of methods I use to structure my day both […]
The Five Dysfunctions
The next book in my series of reviews is called The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni. The book focuses on what the author describes as the five dysfunctions which cause teams to underperform. Whilst the book is written from a board level, it’s clear to see how each of these dysfunctions could […]
What I Found Playing With Azure Functions
As promised all the way back in my NDC Wrap-up, I wanted to share my findings using Azure Functions on a recent project. As always, the story begins with a user requirement. The use case was to build a news monitor which would check a given list of sites and email through any new stories […]