What interviewing hundreds of Pinoy developers taught me, 5 advices to be more hireable...

advice

Background: I work for a BPO company in the Philippines. We hire software engineers in different stacks, but mostly for web development (frontend, backend). Myself, I have more than 30 years of experience in the field. I am not Filipino.

During the past 10 years, I have interviewed and tested hundreds of Filipino candidates. I though it would be nice to post my opinion and some tips and tricks for juniors but also for more senior programmers.

This obviously does not apply only to Filipinos but as I work in the Philippines I prefer to post here and help the people I have been working with for many years.

Disclaimer: Below are only tech advices. I am not talking about cultural differences here as it would be too long. But keep that in mind. Working for a Japanese company, a European company, or an American company will be a completely different experience. Learning about cultural differences and how to handle them is important. Filipinos have a huge expat community abroad, ask them about cultural differences.

Advice #1: Go back to the basics

A lot of developers I have interviewed learned their skills by using frameworks and don't know the basics. I'd estimate that 80-90% of the candidates who got rejected were rejected because of a lack of basic understanding of programming. Probably 95% of the web developers I interviewed can't properly explain what's the Javascript event loop.

For example, they jumped into web development learning jQuery, or React but they don't know Javascript. This is a mistake. Learning the basics might sound boring, but they are the foundations on which you build everything else.

So that's my first advice, go back to the basics, spend some time learning the Node.js API, how Javascript and TypeScript work, how C# and Python work, whatever is your favourite language. Learn common design patterns. Learn how the internet works as well if you are a web developer. It's crazy to see how many candidates apply to a web job but have no idea what are web vitals, what is latency, and what is a DNS.

And SQL, if you are a backend developer and handle a database, please learn SQL, and learn how to properly model a database, and what are the first normalization rules (go on Wikipedia and read). You will keep this on your tool belt for the next 20 years. I learned all that 25 years ago and still use everything today, nothing has changed.

Go on Roadmap.sh and learn everything there. At no point during your career you'll know everything.

Advice #2: Don't expect your current employer to teach you everything

It's perfectly OK to jump boat for career growth and I'd advise you do so if you are working with completely outdated technologies or processes because in the end experience and practice make perfect.

But first, learn by yourself! I have yet to meet a skilled software engineer who hasn't dedicated their evenings or weekends to honing their coding skills. You can't expect your employer to pay for 6 months of training, and lament because they don't and you are not growing.

Life gets in the way, for sure, but be honest, how many hours do you spend on social media? Just replace that with some coding sessions, sit down for 30 minutes and learn something, or simply solve 1 Leetcode every day.

Nobody else will learn for you, and nobody else is responsible for your growth as a software engineer.

PS: Watching a YT or TikTok video doesn't count as learning, it's entertainement. You must apply your skills to learn. If you are not typing code, compiling, deploying, you are not learning.

Advice #3: Be able to explain what you have learned

This is particularly important today with the emergence of AI. Some developers I met are able to give an answer to a question (because they know how to prompt an AI), but when you ask them to explain their answer, they are stuttering and can't provide a proper justification.

Not being able to explain the WHY you made a decision, chose a particular technology, or structured your code in a specific way, will backfire. It's not enough to know how to do it, you need to know why it's better this way over the other way.

There is a difference between being a coder and an engineer. If you want to grow, don't be just a coder. During an interview, we'll always try to discover if you can justify your decisions because it's a proof you know what you are talking about.

Advice #4: Learn how to properly read and write in English

Yeah I know, this is boring too. But you'd be surprised how many people can't write a sentence in English without a spelling mistake. Why is this important? Because when you are working with foreign (English speaking) clients or employers, you'll write all the time, in e-mails, in Slack, in your code comments, naming your variables and classes. Everything will be in English.

In the Philippines, you are very lucky to learn English early in life, but I think you are learning the language mostly by watching TV shows, Netflix, and Youtube. This won't help you with reading and writing. I'd strongly advise you spend more time reading than watching. This is one of those compounding skills that will help you with everything else in life.

Writing in proper English will also show your employers that you are careful and have attention to details. And luckily today this is getting simpler with tools like Copilot or ChatGPT, but don't fool yourself thinking that you are good at something if AI is doing it for you, because companies also know how to simply use an AI instead of you.

Advice #5: On using AI during coding exams

This will depend on the company, usually we don't mind people using AI during an exams, but a coding exam is about showing you know how to solve problems. If you copy/paste everything from AI you are just showing you can prompt an AI, and as soon as the AI won't give you the correct answer you'll be lost.

AI is like an auto-completer, don't use it to replace your skills, because if you do so then there is a great chance some more senior developers can also use it to replace you.

Recently, I have seen a growing number of people failing an exam BECAUSE they were using an AI and got lost trying to understand ChatGPT's answer and were completely unable to fix it.

And yes, it's super easy to tell when someone use an AI during an interview or coding test. In the future, I suspect most coding exams will be replaced by some other form of interviews like pair programming sessions, or live whiteboarding.

Also, consider this, once hired, if you cheated your way with AI, there is a great chance you won't pass the first performance evaluation. The make-up will wear off very quickly once you are onboarded in a project.

Conclusion

I know all this sounds quite boring, there are no special tricks to get you your dream job. If you want to be above the crowd you need to do things that most people don't do and in my experience, most candidates I have interviewed are not doing all this.

Go back to the basics! And I wish you all the best in your careers.

in PinoyProgrammerby UnrelatedConnexion

543

99%

3mo

AlexanderCamilleTho

3mo

"You can't expect your employer to pay for 6 months of training, and lament because they don't and you are not growing. "

The number of new grads complaining how hard their work is, expecting to be spoonfed (and probably a result of what they experienced in college). And in some instances, this is loosely converted to depression due to the emotions of pressure they cannot handle.

Thanks for this post, OP.

clear_skyz200

3mo

May junior dev kami nag complain di daw sya makapag self taught dahil walang PC. I told him gamitin nya yung company laptop wala nman restriction pagagamit. He can upload his own mini project that he made. If he really wants to be good at Javascript coding sinabhan ko balikan nya ung the core fundamentals during his free time.

AlexanderCamilleTho

3mo

Pasok ang old adage na pag gusto maraming paraan, pag ayaw maraming dahilan.

Top_Helicopter_2111

3mo

I agree with this. Dami ko nakikitang IT fresh grads na gusto mag-apply for programming jobs, pero all they want to offer to their prospective employer is "willing to learn" o "willing to be trained" attitude at walang personal projects at daming excuses na di raw alam ano aaralin. Tapos magrereklamo na saturated na raw ang IT or bakit di sila mahire.

csharp566

3mo

As of now, saturated naman talaga ang entry level sa IT.

Knvarlet

3mo

Tbf, mas kasalanan to ng colleges. They barely teach anything and most courses, mga outdated na rin.

Ang competitive masyado ng entry level sa IT to the point na may experience and hindi na ita-train yung gusto kuhanin.

The problem is the system itself not the individuals who didn't know better.

Top_Helicopter_2111

3mo

Yes, kasalanan rin ng mga colleges, but what can IT students do about it? Just pity themselves na mababa quality ng IT education and do nothing but to rant how unskilled they are para sa IT industry?

It's either they remain unskilled or improve themselves for this industry. Choice na nila yun. Instead of blaming the education system, dapat may gawin sila para maging skilled at qualified para sa IT field na gusto nilang pasukan.

Knvarlet

3mo

Well, voicing out the problems and advocating change will prevent people from diving into these shits, para alam ng mga students haharapin nila so that's not a bad thing.

but what can IT students do about it? Just pity themselves na mababa quality ng IT education and do nothing but to rant how unskilled they are para sa IT industry?

To each on their own on how they'll solve this problem and kanya kanyang diskarte na yan. But maybe what we shouldn't do is blame the individuals that couldn't solve it and maybe try to change the system para maiwasan pa to?

Pang dutertard logic yan eh, ayaw ng may nagrereklamo saka nag rarally.

intersectRaven

Cybersecurity

3mo

That's because colleges are there to give you a solid foundation and not to teach you what you will need outside. Technology will always evolve quickly na di 'to pwede imatch ng structured education systems. So ang focus lagi ng colleges or all levels of school in particular is to teach people how to learn. It's just na nakalilimutan na 'to lately since masyadong mainipin mga tao. Gusto lahat andyan na.

Knvarlet

3mo

That's because colleges are there to give you a solid foundation

This doesn't even happen lol. Imagine wanting to be a mobile dev tas ituturo lang sayo sa college is C++, DSA, basic CS, and other IT stuff. Ganyan naman nangyayari sa IT ngayon sa college ni foundation wala kaya maraming graduates hindi alam.

Technology will always evolve quickly na di 'to pwede imatch ng structured education systems.

Colleges outside the country will give you fundamentals and knowledge, lalo na about using frameworks. If it works for them, maybe the problem is we don't have a structured education system.

So ang focus lagi ng colleges or all levels of school in particular is to teach people how to learn. It's just na nakalilimutan na 'to lately since masyadong mainipin mga tao. Gusto lahat andyan na.

Well, this doesn't even happen most of the time. The college will just give you a requirement to do then that's it. Everyone should learn how to study themselves pero if you don't know what you should study then that's a problem. Simpleng roadmap nga hindi nabibigay ng colleges eh. Pero syempre, basta millennial makita lang na nagbigay ka ng roadmap, spoon feeding agad.

ktmd-life

3mo

Hay nako kaumay ito even with experienced people. Daming excuse for why they can’t learn things on their own.

They don’t even bother to read documentation, gusto i-summarize ko for them. I have no qualms for asking questions but oftentimes they use it as a shortcut, halatang di manlang inaral muna.

Tapos feeling smart pa, dapat daw may matinong process ng pagtrain ng mga tao for whatever, eh putangina kung magbasa ka kaya, anong gusto mo igagawa kita ng online course?

Tigil muna tayo magwork para turuan kang deputa ka ano? Ikaw na lang magbayad ng sweldo namin kung ganun ka kaimportante

Alintana

3mo

I 100% agree with advice 1. Many new developers are relying heavily on these frameworks and forgetting the fundamentals of computer science. Essentially, they are depending on a lot of abstractions provided by the framework without fully understanding how it works. Having a general idea of how these things work really helps you a lot in your career.

bagene09

3mo

This actually happens even with “Seniors”. I onboarded some “senior” devs that even after one month, still can’t follow the request cycle of a Symfony project which has custom abstractions and pattern kasi iba daw structure sa typical Symfony project.

TheFourthINS

3mo

Yep madaming Seniors ang ganito. Many don't even know their framework's lifecycle kahit pa half-decade worth of pure experience na kuno sila. Puro surface-level knowledge lang ang hawak. Pag may task na nag-rerequire na mag-extend nung frameworks in some way, wala na agad.

JKPHunter

3mo

And they will downvote you kapag sinabihan mo ng tama

Alintana

3mo

And people are using this isArray npm package instead of typing Array.isArray. Have developers truly forgotten how to code?

boborider

3mo

Few years ago. A foreigner interviewed me for a work for Database system for the financial company. There was no exams.

They interviewed me. An Interview become a "discussion" how I do things with database in a technical level. I got in.

At the different time, i asked the foreigner (programmer) why there is no exam. He said, exam is pointless. They need people who know how to get things done.

Few years later, i got retrenched because of Economic downfall of CoVID. It was best few years for me.

BASICS are important. Latest platform or latest technologies are not always the solution on big companies. New programmers fail to understand the importance of "programming for compatibility" rather using "programming to make it look good".

WantASweetTime

3mo

Few years later, i got retrenched because of Economic downfall of CoVID. It was best few years for me.

Why was it the best years for you? Did you enjoy being free and unemployed?

boborider

3mo

I said best, because i learned a lot from the company. After retrenchment, i have new job on the next day. :)

feedmesomedata

Data

3mo

Adding a sticky on this for at least a week so that more of this subreddit's visitors and members can read.

Kazuki_26

3mo

Thank you. It's comforting to know I am learning the right way. One of my friends is telling me to jump to React and Bootstrap because according to him, that is the only thing needed to get a web dev job, but I still continue learning the basics first. I'm almost done learning the basics (or kind of advanced stuff I think) of HTML, CSS, and JS and will soon jump to frameworks.

Left-Ad-9720

3mo

I'm in between in your argumeny on alloting time on upskilling or catching up with the technology outside of our working hours. Is that what we really want for our future kids to have in their lives?

I know there are many applicants now as result of lay offs. But, I disagree on spending time for work on our time supposedly for leisure and personal lives.

Instead, we should advocate to the generation to focus on work if it is working hour to maximize the time to do the tasks and catching up with the trend.

braindump__

3mo

Yep. Our line of work is obviously mentally exhausting. Keep doing it on your free time and you’ll be burned out in no time. As I have said before, rest is absolutely necessary. Self improvement can be done at the job so leave some time for yourself for recovery.

ktmd-life

3mo

Use your work time for learning, if possible.

Pero time is gold ika nga, and there would always be tradeoffs. For me, I really prefer a good work life balance, but I make sure to be efficient at work so I can make time for self improvement during that time.

But remember that time is also a great equaliser, one can get better than you at something by spending more time on it, but you can build up capital with experience.

IWantMyYandere

3mo

But you will be beaten by those who do those things outside of work. A kid doing self study would always be ahead of their peers or even seniors.

TheFourthINS

3mo

I disagree on spending time for work on our time supposedly for leisure and personal lives.

You can do that, and that's ideal for everyone. But at the same time, while you "enjoy life" thousands of developers are spending their freetime upskilling. By the time you're looking for work again, you're up against people with the same YOE but far ahead in knowledge. So you'll have no choice but to compete on roles that people with 3 or 5 years less YOE than you.

Same goes for fresh grads. You're a fresh grad and you know the basic? Now you're up against 5 other candidates who tirelessly self-studied for 1 year. And now you're scrapping the bottom of the barrel with P15,000 offer.

So in reality, it's a matter of choice between upskilling now and fast-tracking your career, or enjoying life for the next 10 years and gain so little in your career.

Except of course if you're a talented genius. Which most people aren't.

Left-Ad-9720

3mo

Then after a hundred years, everyone has to spend 10+ hours per day to be ahead of everyone because it will be a norm to allot 9 hours per day upskilling.

TheFourthINS

3mo

Well, as I said, it's a choice. You can spend extra time upskilling and be ahead of the curve, or take your time and compete below your YOE, or amongst people who did the same.

You'll still get hired, it's just that those who spent more time upskilling will have better chance at getting hired, and can access opportunities with better hours, pay, and environment.

Ultimately, what you choose will define your future career.

Alternative_Duck_551

3mo

30 minutes self study everyday is enough to get ahead

intersectRaven

Cybersecurity

3mo

Kung ako tatanungin, yes, that is what I would want my kids to be doing the rest of their lives. Learning. I don't want them to be stagnant and comfortable with what they currently know. I want them to constantly be working on themselves to improve. If that's work for them, I'd advise them that maybe they're not doing something they're passionate about and ask themselves what they really would want to do in life. Because, make no mistake about it, outside of very rare circumstances, they WILL have to do it for the rest of their lives.

[deleted]

3mo

I'm still a strong advocate of "just in time" learning. You'll learn the skills you need just in time for you to be productive. The key is a strong foundation. Minsan ang babaw din ng definition natin ng upskilling which is just to catch up with new tools. Mastery of the basics is more powerful than any upskilling you'll ever do.

captainbarbell

3mo

using an ai for coding exam is cheating. when i conduct live coding exams i ask them they can open the online manual, even stack overflow. i assess how well the candidate knows the language as well as his style of attacking the problem

feedmesomedata

Data

3mo

For senior or principal devs I'd love to see them use Copilot and see if they can immediately identify mistakes in the suggested block of code. I enjoy watching Matteo Collina (Unlocking Node.js' Power: A Journey into Fastify and Beyond) where he uses Copilot in the live tutorials and can spot the mistakes and fix them.

delphinoy

3mo

Unfortunately, there are a lot of coders out there but not engineers. Sadly, a lot of these coders don't know the basics.

boborider

3mo

That's true, they heavily reliant on abstraction and packages. It's bad news for big projects that requires native language for technical level.

pigwin

3mo

they jumped into web development learning jQuery, or React but they don't know Javascript

I thought the "know React but don't know JavaScript" was just a meme. Totoo pala, SMH.

sizejuan

3mo

Totoo to, yung isang dev samin dati nagstruggle mag integrate ng a bit of an outdated library na wala sa npm, di niya alam pano iaaccess yung nasa global window object na haha.

Forward-632146KP

3mo

LmaooooOOOOoooo r/PinoyProgrammer already in shambles after failing advice no 1

For the love of god learn to code

ZoomerEngineer

3mo

I did notice that this sub is full of leetcode grinders and framework churners

At least that's the idea I get from reading comments from this sub whenever there's a discussion about upskilling or "fundamentals"

Too focused on hunting for the hottest tech stack, and grinding freshman-tier skill like algorithms/leetcode, in a world where even today's top tech companies (e.g. OpenAI, Anthropic, Databricks, Apple) arent even doing your typical leetcode hiring anymore.

Only a few people from this sub are talking about foundational/non-temporal engineering skill like:

data, patterns, testing, protocols, performance, architecture and system level concerns, basic security, storage infra, platforms/infra, concurrency models, foundational APIs on their stack, partial failures, soft skills such as tail risk analysis and writing.

With AI and tooling getting better fast, learning new skillsets and retooling will happen more often. Data Engineers, SREs, and QA in big tech are already automated and on the way out. Heck even the birthplace of SRE, Google, there's a massive push to use automation to reduce the number of SREs by at least half, and there's an internal memo last year for SREs about embracing AI and moving some scope to SWEs. No niche is safe, especially roles with narrow scope as logic is always easier to automate and processes can be streamlined. You need to be adaptable. People who neglect their engineering foundation will have a hard time learning and staying competitive

It's git gud or git replaced

ongamenight

3mo

You can't blame them. If you're aware of the job opportunities nowadays, it is unlike before na basics lang ang nasa requirements. The entry barrier is higher than before na need may alam sa X, Y, Z stack.

It's not learning "hottest stack" but in demand stack.

ZoomerEngineer

3mo

Agreed. I'm with you there. Not blaming people, it is what it is

But I'm talking about how there's less talk about investing in a career "moat", particularly good foundational and non-temporal skills that allows people to learn and switch easily, and use to leverage themselves forward, market themselves better.

Such a moat provides them protection from fast change and bad economies like today. There are no more SREs at Microsoft and Amazon, but competent SREs have enough knowledge that they can easily switch to other domains like infra SWE or jump into MLOps/AI Infra (and a lot of them do go there for the money), because a lot of them intersect

https://lobste.rs/s/vxasiq/i_don_t_want_do_front_end_anymore#c_02zjbc

jussey-x-poosi

3mo

ano po tech stack niyo /s

ktmd-life

3mo

Tbh, I really hate how HRs filter applicants based on their tech stack because of stupid shit like these.

They just play it safe because majority are incapable of transferring from one stack to another.

jussey-x-poosi

3mo

tbh, hiring managers are also at fault here. I had a few referrals way back in the day, all of it got rejected by the "director" because my referrals don't have adequate experience in cloud, while all of his minions are just a bunch of wanna be in mekus land.

while some teams in same company believe that hiring a fundamentally good candidate with 0 experience in cloud, than hiring a mediocre candidate with experience with cloud.

Silly-Astronaut-8137

3mo

Do you have data on career shifters who got into the IT industry? I want to know what is the % vs those with degrees if you do not mind sharing.

fartmanteau

3mo

This is a perfectly legit question. Man there are some salty gatekeeping jerks out there.

pigwin

3mo

Unfortunately there seem to be an uptick in gatekeeping in PH tech communities. Galit na galit sa career shifters. Hindi naman lahat ng shifters nakakapasok. At kahit di pa uso noon ang career shifting, madami din naman IT grads na di makapasok.

Git gud. Wag magalit sa shifters. Kung nagdenggoy yun team nyo ng shifter, edi tanggalin Diba?

fartmanteau

3mo

This is the same insecurity that makes people afraid of AI taking jobs. Stop living in fear my dudes. The future is wide open. If you’re in tech at all, you’ve already won. Focus on getting better and have fun instead of watching your back all the time.

Silly-Astronaut-8137

3mo

Don’t they want to see what these career shifters had to do to outdo their competition? I think knowing this would benefit both career shifters and degree holders.

No ill intentions, just pure data analysis.

UnrelatedConnexion

3mo

I don't. Not sure what's the goal of your request, is that for you?

Anybody can learn how to code but not everybody is going to have enough interest in the industry to stick to it and continue learning.

Personally I don't care about degrees. I will never reject an applicant because they have no degree. As long as they can prove they know how to build softwares well and they are interested to learn and improve I am happy hiring them.

JKPHunter

3mo

The key words "build softwares well/right". Madami marunong lang magbuild ng basta gumagana lang 😂

annoyingkraken

3mo

I see. It seems like a portfolio is truly more telling nowadays as proof of an applicant's proficiency. I suspected as much. Other people have mentioned it quite a few times after all.

jussey-x-poosi

3mo

man, you summed up the frame of what the current status is.

you can also add those people who had cetification in gahdly knows what cloud technology it is.

type4less

3mo

Marketing marketing marketing

Europa_012

This is very helpful! I myself am currently going through roadmap.sh for frontend. I hope I get this job i want soon!

Towel1355

3mo

Estimate that 80-90% of the candidates who got rejected were rejected because of a lack of basic understanding of programming.

This statement alone gives me hope

Forsaken_Buy_7531

3mo

#1 Most of the local companies are framework-ers also, instead of asking the core questions, they tend to ask questions about a specific framework, library, or tooling. They don't bother asking about the fundamental stuff, or the core idea/pattern behind that framework. Like React and Vue is pretty much the same such as a part of its core pattern is the Virtual DOM.

IT-girl09

3mo

Op thank you for this, this is noted.

Ambitious-Ad-739

3mo

Much needed! Thank you for this insights!

wfh-phmanager

3mo

Hi OP. I want to drop my hat as respect for sharing these tips. I'm not a developer, but used programming in my work as a manager. I yearn for the day that I can go back to coding full time. You are right - spending small chunks of time to improve your problem-solving skills through code is essential to grow in this field.

amony_mous

3mo

Thank you so much for this, OP. I have been thinking what basics did I miss since I am a career shifter and now have 2 years exp in java development.

This is such a big help

cocojam01

3mo

What a remarkable input you got there. I thought about the "BASIC Programming language" as I read your post. Maybe next time you interview someone, ask about "CLI".

ForsakenFishing5191

3mo

The problem is, local companies nowadays are looking for the specific tech stacks instead of the basics, especially for the beginners. That's why applicants are focusing on the frameworks, libraries etc. I think we can't blame those beginners. But yeah, I agree that they should learn the basics too.

muchoop

3mo

There's a saying, what you do on a daily basis reflects your future. So what kind of future do you want?