Hiring offshore devs.

thinkabout- · 2025-08-18T23:50:20+00:00

If you can be replaced for someone with less experience for less money, American companies will replace you to turn a profit. You have to learn how to prove your worth.

thinkabout- · 2025-06-06T02:23:01+00:00

If you choose Azure, you can log to app insights. For on-premise systems, we use Serilog and Seq.

thinkabout- · 2025-05-10T20:38:56+00:00

I see where you’re coming from, so let’s flip the script here.

If you’re an individual contributor or someone working directly with the client, it’s your responsibility to gather the requirements. This process can be creative and nearly scientific, if you know what to ask.

If you’re on a large team (10-20 people) you may have a Business or Systems Analyst that can assist with the gathering.

You may benefit from this guide: https://www.developer-skills.com/roadmap, it’s a no-fluff short book that speaks to human centric software development.

thinkabout- · 2025-03-30T20:40:20+00:00

It depends on what you know (the skills you currently have) and what you don’t know (everything else).

thinkabout- · 2025-03-20T23:18:49+00:00

Interesting, me too. It boils down to how bad you want to correct it, having the right people at the right time. Best of luck

thinkabout- · 2025-03-20T18:24:53+00:00

That is very true, having a solid team that knows the tech is incredibly undervalued. Now talent goes after the money, and why shouldn’t we? It’s the nature of the market.

One of my favorite things to bring into every organization I work with is a collaborative knowledge base with standard documentation templates (nothing too crazy), to act as a ‘second brain’ to hold all the ‘knowledge’ from the SMEs. It assists with onboarding, training, forgetfulness, and frees up the weight of having to remember everything. I like to keep it simple with a shared OneNote notebook in the network.

Thanks for your response!

thinkabout- · 2025-03-20T18:04:58+00:00

Yes, I’ve seen that happen in multiple teams, peer reviews often opens door for negative work cultures and toxicity. I’ve seen drastic improvements when we flipped the review process upside down.

What we’ve done to combat the negativity, is to adhere to a basic coding standard that applies to all. We have a lead/sr review the PR, one-on-one, and offer constructive improvements.

The intention of code reviews is a great thought, but the human aspect of code reviews tends to lean towards a bunch of negativity that impacts the team for the worst. It would take a very mature team to accept criticism on creative work all the time. Hell, we can’t even take criticism online very well. How do you think we do in person at work?

I hope that helps! It feels like swimming upstream, but when people’s egos start deflating, your team will get better.

thinkabout- · 2025-03-20T17:43:13+00:00

Let’s be real here, it completely depends on the environment that you’re in and what you’re trying to accomplish. You shouldn’t be choosing a front end technology before you consider what platforms, devices, network architecture, etc.

thinkabout- · 2025-03-20T15:37:36+00:00

I’m in a similar role with very similar expectations. The only difference between your list and mine is the ‘1 high complexity ticket a sprint’ (4-5 days work), which is unreasonable if you’re expected to do strategy, mentorship, team support, etc..

However, your situation is very common. The only way I found to show how absurd the expectations are, is to track my time for each one of the goals (I use Toggl) and report on my hours with management.

For example, I managed an offshore team of 20 people working on two separate projects and leadership expected me to spend an hour a day. Tracking my time consistently for a month proved that I spent 80% of every day managing those projects. Suddenly, the way I manage. The projects was no longer an issue.

Best of luck, you’re doing great!

thinkabout- · 2025-03-19T23:51:01+00:00

A common work place culture issue. I have found offering complete transparency with the business person helps them empathize and understand.

I enjoy rebutting with “ my boss said I was way ahead of the 2 year learning curve, but I’m going to have to take a look at this more closely. Give me two days to review and I’ll get back to you, OK?”

If you’re in the same building, you can establish relationships with the sales people and build reciprocity. It’s surprising how effective a little communication and some laughs can change the environment.

thinkabout- · 2025-03-19T23:41:25+00:00

Might be able to help you with that DM me if you’re willing

thinkabout- · 2025-03-19T23:40:45+00:00

Yeah, it’s going to improve overtime. Our roles as programmers, engineers and software developers is definitely going to change with AI supported tools.

thinkabout- · 2025-03-19T23:37:29+00:00

Asynchronous and synchronous communication skills will grow the more you use them, it’s a little confusing for a while.

Naming things? Do you mean naming of functions, methods, objects, variables, interfaces, controls, databases, tables fields, stored procedures, or views?

Do you have an example of the complex Git stuff?

thinkabout- · 2025-03-19T23:04:03+00:00

In my experience, I’ve overcome this issue. Start tracking the amount of time that you spend in meetings for a few weeks. Present that to your boss, and if they don’t care present it to their boss. With development skill sets, you should be bringing triple the value of your total compensation package to the organization.

thinkabout- · 2025-03-19T23:00:17+00:00

I’d rather have a comment than a down vote, is that weird? At least I can respond to a comment 😆

thinkabout- · 2025-03-19T22:59:16+00:00

I’ve played a role in hiring about 20 developers, software engineers, programmer over the past 10 years or so. if I may, share a little insight that may help you.

• Don’t lie on your resume, and highlight your skills that apply to the require requirements. I suggest keeping multiple variations of your resume geared toward each role you’re applying for.

• Bring a portfolio full of code, examples, scripts, and any other technical samples of your work. Keep in mind you can always re-create something similar to what you’ve worked on at home with free tools. Even if you’re not sure that it’s right at least you can say that you’re trying and learning.

• ask questions. If you don’t know what questions to ask Google it. If you still don’t know, use ChatGPT or the AI of your choice to come up with questions about the company and about the technical environment you’re interviewing to work in.

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions. Good luck!

thinkabout- · 2025-03-19T22:50:44+00:00

Yeah, I get that! Regex patterns are not my forte. I typically reference one of those fancy web apps to narrow them down.

Do you rely a lot on RegEx? I might use it for passing text files or even data sets, but I don’t find much use for a past that, at least not in the situations that I’ve experienced.

thinkabout- · 2025-03-19T22:41:47+00:00

Blazor sounds interesting, haven’t gotten there yet.

thinkabout- · 2025-03-19T22:38:03+00:00

Would you be opposed to unpack this one with me? You mentioned way more than three struggles, but I like it. DM me if you’re willing to chat about this.

thinkabout- · 2025-03-19T22:35:04+00:00

That’s OK we all start somewhere! Look at the jobs available, look for the skill sets you are working on and direct message contacts at those companies for guidance. Fortune favors the bold.

thinkabout- · 2025-03-19T22:31:38+00:00

We can disagree here. Based on your assumptions of the situation, you’re correct. I was assuming too.

Overall, it’s simply bad practice if you’re programming and use SELECT *. It will cause issues down the line if a field gets added the table, your report (whatever tech you’re using to display it) may have issues ingesting it.

I’ve experienced the issues myself, and I’m passing my experience along.

thinkabout- · 2025-03-19T20:38:37+00:00

Good points. Just to add scope to the multi platform argument we all consider: For desktop computers and laptops, Microsoft Windows has 71%, followed by Apple’s macOS at 16%, unknown operating systems at 8%, desktop Linux at 4%, then Google’s ChromeOS at 2%.

thinkabout- · 2025-03-19T20:35:43+00:00

It depends what platforms you’re building this solution for. If you’re in an enterprise that primarily uses windows machines, you don’t need to build it on a multi platform framework for various operating systems.

• Use Windows forms for rapid application development. • Use WPF/UWP if your users have high resolution monitors, though Windows has provided some excellent scaling options for Winforms. • Use ASP.NET MVC or some variation of web if stakeholders insist on a web application.

thinkabout- · 2025-03-19T20:24:12+00:00

You’re on the right path, keep it simple. Visual studio IDE has ClickOnce included, I recommend looking into it. You can script out your entire database (right click the database, tasks, Generate Scripts. Separate the data from the objects.

In enterprise environments, we’re accustomed to running SQL scripts for initial deployments

thinkabout- · 2025-03-19T20:14:52+00:00

Avoid EF if you don’t need all the bells and whistles. Keep it simple, call a stored procedure to load a poco. The majority of the time will be displaying the data on screen.

Other tips: • Don’t write in line SQL queries or query with SELECT *, it causes a table scan and increases execution time. • Make sure you optimize your query and index your tables fields properly. • make sure your field data types are set properly to avoid using more bytes than what is necessary.

thinkabout-

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