Forem: Spiro Floropoulos

Long time tech folks, what's your story?

Spiro Floropoulos — Sun, 17 Jan 2021 20:28:44 +0000

How long have you been in tech?

In what capacity?

What are you doing now?

How has tech changed since you started?

If you could change tech today, what would you do?

What are some negatives and positives of the current tech landscape?

What advice do you have to give to others?

Or just chat about your experiences in general. I love reading them

Job seekers - how are you coping?

Spiro Floropoulos — Sun, 17 Jan 2021 20:27:22 +0000

To everyone out there who's currently looking for work and having a hard time: how are you coping? If someone offered you something to dramatically help you right now, what would it be?

Send Positive Vibes

Spiro Floropoulos — Sun, 03 Jan 2021 02:04:44 +0000

2020 sucked and I just wanted to send positive vibes out to the world to combat the negativity.

I made an app for this. Free, no ads, no weird stuff. Just a simple mobile app where you can send positive vibes and see them.

https://spv.spirofloropoulos.com

State of Technical Interviews - Initial Data!

Spiro Floropoulos — Mon, 12 Oct 2020 00:26:48 +0000

What is this?

In case you're not sure what this is, I created a questionnaire and pleaded for fellow programmers and technical people to fill it out. I intend for this data to be used in a way that helps the community tackle technical interviews in a way that benefits everybody including the employers.

I think there's a win-win scenario here but I still need your help! 20 responses isn't enough. Please help by filling out the questionnaire.

The original article is here

The data so far

Even though there are only 20 responses, it seems that some trends are already forming. Here are just a few tidbits.

Algorithms

It seems a decent majority of you are getting asked algorithm questions during interviews. At least 55% of respondents got asked algorithm questions very often or almost all the time.

However, when asked how many of the respondents felt they got the job because of their ability to answer algorithm questions, approximately 57% of them answered with almost never to not very often!

Whiteboard

Approximately 55% of respondents said they almost never or not very often get asked whiteboard questions during interviews.

Over 50% of the respondents also said they don't think they got the job because of their ability to work through whiteboard questions.

Feedback on failure

A whopping 75% of respondents said they almost never or not very often get feedback on why they failed an interview.

To me, that's quite sad. It's in the best interest of an employer to provide this feedback. It helps nurture and guide people to do better which means better employees the next time around.

Training opportunities

It seems that most respondents felt they could accept a lower paying job if they knew the job would offer them opportunities to learn and expand their skills. That's actually quite valuable for employers to know because it's a win-win investment for everybody involved.

Thank you for participating

So far it's been really interesting to see what the answers are like. I really truly appreciate everyone who has participated thus far.

I intend to do a full, in depth, write up after I have enough respondents.

Please share the questionnaire, tweet it, whatever you can do to bring people to it. The more data we have, the better we can make our technical interview process and, ultimately, the better opportunities we can offer and get.

I made a thing (machi koro clone)

Spiro Floropoulos — Sun, 11 Oct 2020 05:20:43 +0000

I just wanted to put this out there. I suck at design but I wanted to prove some things from a programming perspective.

If you've played Machi Koro the board game, you'll know what this is.

The README in the github explains what I was trying to accomplish. Essentially I wanted to see how far I could go with vanilla JS, CSS and HTML using web components and CSS variables. Some of the stuff in here is kinda cool!

Github and live demo

State of Technical Interviews - Need Your Help!

Spiro Floropoulos — Tue, 26 May 2020 20:55:55 +0000

Technical Interview Suck (my personal opinion)

I don't think I'm the only one who feels this way. There are a variety of ways to ascertain the knowledge of a developer during an interview. It seems to me that there's a mixture of like and dislike for any given method. For example, I can find about as many people who hate whiteboard questions as people who like them.

I believe the real devil is in the details, however.

Overall, technical interviews suck.

I propose that we can all do better.

A survey for developers

It's my belief that there is actually a very proper way to qualify and quantify all the interview methods in use today. In a future post, I will propose an interview structure that anybody can use to determine the "fitness" of a developer regardless of domain, knowledge, seniority or experience.

For now, however, I think it's important that we developers get a voice. I've thus formed a survey that is completely anonymous.

It's broken into two sections. The first section has 13 questions, graded linearly, that should take only a minute to fill out. These are, I believe, critical questions that will give a decent overview of what we experience on our end. There's another section with more questions that are completely optional. However, the more you fill out, the better the quality of the data.

Comments and suggestions are welcome and, of course, THANK YOU to everyone who participates.

Please share this so we can get as many people as possible in the survey.

I promise to share this data publicly and use it in ways that benefit everyone who needs work or needs to employ workers in the technical fields.

Google Doc Survey Here

Developers Senior Class - Episode 2 - Some actual code

Spiro Floropoulos — Fri, 14 Dec 2018 08:32:03 +0000

Overview

Follow me as I try to build a digital version of a physical board game! This is a long-form series (1 hour per episode, approximately) with little to no editing. The intent is to end up with a project that we can actually publish and use together! You will see me try, test, fail, think and hopefully succeed in the end.

This is not a series about simpler or beginner concepts in bite sized formats.

Your feedback is warmly welcome.

Please help me out! Share the video, like it, tweet about it, etc...

Source code lives at: https://github.com/spirodonfl/machi-koro

If you want to view this video on YouTube then just click here

Developers Senior Class - Episode 1 - Intro and Planning

Spiro Floropoulos — Mon, 26 Nov 2018 02:24:28 +0000

Overview

This is not a series about simpler or beginner concepts in bite sized formats.

Your feedback is warmly welcome.

Please help me out! Share the video, like it, tweet about it, etc...

Source code lives at: https://github.com/spirodonfl/machi-koro

If you want to view this video on YouTube then just click here

Roast my portfolio

Spiro Floropoulos — Wed, 14 Nov 2018 06:10:41 +0000

I could use some criticism on my portfolio site. Every time I update it there is usually something that nags me about it like I'm doing something wrong with it. Or I'm missing something.

I'd be happy to hear how the portfolio isn't up to snuff.

spirofloropoulos dot com.

Technical Virtue Signaling

Spiro Floropoulos — Sun, 21 Oct 2018 23:16:22 +0000

If you want the youtube version of this video, just click here and enjoy.

What is "Virtue Signaling"?

I spend the beginning of the video somewhat describing what it is. Honestly, just Google it or something. You don't need me to define it.

Tech companies do it

When a company asks you to use some complex algorithm or solve a crazy problem that you'll probably never run across then I'd say that's virtue signaling.

To me, the company is saying "Look at how cool we are. We know these algorithms or structures or maths or [insert some cool buzzword here] and that means we're hip and you should work for us".

Here's the real question: Will you use said algorithm, structure, paradigm or [insert some cool buzzword here] in your day to day job? If the answer is no then don't interview developers with those questions unless you have a very specific reason to.

There are cases where having an interview question like that serves a purpose. Maybe the interviewer just wants to see what your thought process is like and how you solve problems. That's fine, I understand that.

Some of the best interviews I've been on (and can say others have been on) have been more like tackling actual real problems that exist in the company and programming something together or shadowing someone as you work through something. That gives you a realistic scenario of what the job will actually require of you and how you'll deal with it.

My favorite ridiculous interview question: If you were a coin and you got stuck in a blender how would you get out?

Developers do it

I saw this recently: A developer stated, on Twitter, that people are not real programmers unless they are programming in x, y or z fashion.

In reality what's being said is "Look at how good I am. I'm a real programmer and you're not and here's why you're not".

You're adding unnecessary overhead to your job. You don't have to politicize anything or define things to such a degree that you are willing to clamp down on people and label them (or remove labels) based on your own definitions of what is or is not programming.

You carry that with you at work. "Well if you're not using this complex algorithm to solve this problem then you're not really a programmer but I am because I do use it so just listen to me and solve this problem how I tell you to."

Get out. That's not constructive. You're also not programming if you're saying things like that.

Big massive tech companies are doing it

I won't mention which companies but there seems to be a rise in banning or muting people with views that aren't considered "Politically Correct". You are on one side of a political spectrum that isn't agreeable? Blocked. You are skeptical of some science that seems to be generally accepted? Blocked.

That's virtue signaling. My job, as a programmer, involves programming ways to access, manipulate and disseminate information. The idea of blocking people because they don't agree with your or even the general consensus seems backwards for a tech company to start meddling in.

Conclusion

It's stupid and ridiculous and doesn't belong to, at least, specific areas of the tech industry.

If you disagree with me or think I've said something stupid, I would love to hear from you.

Is rejection for a job becoming more normal or...?

Spiro Floropoulos — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 14:26:03 +0000

It seems more developers are being rejected for jobs they apply for and they're being rejected over longer periods of time. I'm seeing more posts on various platforms (including dev.to) from developers having a hard time finding work and being without work for longer.

I know a couple devs who are awesome and passionate and excellent coders. But they went without getting accepted for a job for months, sometimes longer.

Or maybe it's just that we have so many platforms to tell our stories that these stories seem more prevalent?

Thoughts?

The slow and painful death of a developer

Spiro Floropoulos — Wed, 23 May 2018 23:58:02 +0000

If you want the youtube version of this video, just click here and enjoy.

Edit: I have received a great deal of feedback on this post. An addendum is posted at the bottom.

TLDR; You want to know one method of becoming an unemployable developer? Stay stagnant for a reasonable amount of time. Doing it unknowingly. Worse, do it knowingly. Watch as you disappear.

This statement may be incorrect (do correct me if it is) but it seems to me that technology is one of the fastest moving fields, very broadly speaking, that anybody could find themselves working in. Perhaps not the fastest. It has to be pretty high on the list, though.

Raise your hands: how many of you remember the days when jQuery was all the rage? Do not misunderstand me, jQuery is still used and has a relevant place, but would I be wrong to state that it is not what it once was?

I remember when Mongo was this new fangled shiny database that was garnering all kinds of attention.

These are things that only changed in the last few years, maybe less.

Anyways, why do I mention this? If you read the title then you can probably hazard a guess. As a matter of fact, it may be redundant to write anything more.

But it seems important to provide at least one example of a developer whom I know and how she found herself in a bad spot.

Perhaps this article can serve as a warning to other developers out there.

The example

This developer was in a constant battle at work. She called it "firefighting mode" and it almost never went away. I will not give specifics because I do not think they are important to the point. Suffice it to say, she had to struggle with a bad code base and bad data structure and bad management, among a few other things.

It was a difficult challenge to make progress against these thing. She would go in to work in the morning, struggle all day, then come out at the end of the day feeling frustrated and unwilling to do anything else. It was emotionally draining.

However, despite that, she was consistently focused and active in trying to make things better. Sometimes that meant some overtime hours. Sometimes it just meant she had to step away from the screen for the day and not look back until the next morning. Commitment to the cause is definitely one of her strengths.

The death

At some point, the she realized she could not keep working at this company anymore. Progress wasn't being made (or it was too slow coming) and she had to quit.

Unfortunately, as she began looking around at her options in the tech industry, she rapidly realized she was massively out of date with the skills being asked for. She had spent two years of her time focused on keeping up the status quo for the company she was at that she didn't realized how much ground she was losing outside of that.

She ended up having to take a lower role with lower pay and she only got that job because a friend of hers worked at the company she applied for and vouched for her.

The lesson

This is what happens when you're not paying enough attention. If you don't look at what's really going on around you then you risk becoming stagnant. You risk allowing yourself to fall out of date and become far less useful to the industry because you haven't been able to keep up.

This doesn't mean you need to be coding 24/7 and doing a zillion side projects and submitting to open source code all the time.

It means you need to aware enough to realize when you're not feeling the pulse of your job anymore and have the sense to do something about it before your pulse no longer matters.

Addendum

Based on the rather large feedback I have received, I want to clarify that this post has some value to those in the web development space. Web development is somewhat of a hot mess right now and there's always something shiny and new and employers are changing their requirements rapidly. But there are plenty of sectors in technology that do not move that fast and where you can stay focused and safe for, sometimes, years and years.