WARNING: Seriously talented iOS developer

The Super Bowl was yesterday and it was my birthday! I’m pretty stoked to see Joe Flacco pic up his first championship ring and for me to get another year older!

So to get us back into the swing of things I thought I’d share with you an exceptional talent within the iOS industry. My candidate has come from an extensive software development background and over the past 4 years has dedicated this to iOS development. My candidate’s impressive portfolio includes numerous digital agencies and has recently finished up a contract with one of my top clients designing and developing an internal mobile application that is going to be rolled out to over 100,000 employees worldwide.

To outline his experience and expertise:

My candidate is an iOS extraordinaire because:

• Objective C, iPhone, iOS (4 years).
• Languages: Objective C, C.
• Strong problem solving skills.
• Focus on simplicity in usability and design.
• An extensive career in software development.
• Platforms: iPhone, iPad, iOS, Windows, Mac OSX, GPS.

What other skills pay the bills?

• Languages: Objective C, C, .NET, C, C++, C#, Visual Basic, Java, HTML, Perl, ASP, Access.
• Platforms: iPhone, iOS, Windows, Mac OSX, GPS , Linux, BlackBerry, Nokia, AMX Control, Mapping.
• Media: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Visio, Dreamweaver, Cubase, Apple Logic, Sony Vegas Pro.

How my candidate plays the field:

• With an impressive career and experience in IT, my candidate is a highly valued developer and problem solver who has worked in many industries, including mobile, GPS, mapping, finance, retail, publishing, banking, manufacturing, music, and video.
• My candidate’s IT skills encompass software development, user interface design, web development, and the integration of software and hardware systems. Further to his IT skills, he is experienced in music and video production, and traditional print production and design. His main focus now is that of the mobile industry, specifically iOS.
• My candidate’s drive and focus is, and has always been, on producing professional results, to the highest possible standard, no matter the task or tools at hand.

My candidate is available immediately at a fantastic day rate that will incorporate all insurances and payroll taxes.

This is a great opportunity to take on board a talented professional to get your next mobile project over the line. So if you have a project coming up, I would love to introduce you.

Are you a seasoned PHP contractor? Looking for a new challenge? Then read on…

I’m currently working with an iconic Australian company that is in need of talented PHP professionals to join their growing team. This is a 3-6 month contract and there is also the option to go perm for the right candidate.

Find out more see below: Click here to go to my Add on SEEK to APPLY

Due to an increased demand of their project pipeline, this well established Sydney based company is in need talented Mid-Level PHP developer’s :

• Continue your career with a great Australian Company
• Use cutting edge technologies
• Contract role – Fantastic day rates on offer!

Key Requirements:

• 3-5 years PHP development experience
• Examples of where you have built websites from scratch using PHP
-OR-
• Strong PHP skills with experience with software development for web based applications  (not just toyed around with PHP)

What you will be:

• You will be a strong back end PHP developer with the ability to work in the Front end with the necessary languages.
• Exposure to  PHP Framework ZEND  advantageous however if you are a pure software developer with PHP still apply!

You will have:

• Previous examples of web applications of Software that is written in PHP
• Strong communication skills and an ability to work well within a team
• Willingness to learn
• Degree in Software Engineering

You will love developing in PHP, and be able to hit the ground running here to take care of this great company’s new software requirements.

Click here to go to my Add on SEEK to APPLY OR Get in touch – Sam Elderfield, sam.elderfield@ambition.com.au OR 9248 6228

Risk takers need not apply. Or should they?

Great article from Andy Cross, MD for Ambition Technology. Taking risks has been frowned upon in the current economic climate in many industries, the job market one of them. As a risk taker myself, I really like Andy’s article and points on taking risks that benefit ones career, society and what current risks that are being taken by managers our there today are doing to employee’s productivity and moral.

Take a risk, spend two mins and have a read!

Risk takers need not apply. Or should they?.

Need a Front End Developer?

 

The New Year has well and truly kicked off and a lot of projects have been underway for many of my clients. I can only imagine how what is on your plate at the moment so I thought that I’d give you an insight to a talented front end developer that I interviewed this week and hopefully my candidate can help you out on your next project.

Please also remember I work in a contract and permanent market, so if you require a contracting solution, give me a day rate and I’ll find a solution to fit inside this inclusive of all charges except GST.

Here are my interview notes:

My candidate has great communication skills and is passionate about continuing a career in Front End Development. He has developed a good strong foundation of skill set from exposure to Flash, as well as HTML5, CSS3 JavaScript and JQuery.

My candidate comes from a design background with 5 years’ experience and possesses that unique combination of 50/50 designer/coder. This talent makes him fluent with the entire Adobe suite and all relevant Development languages.

Has an impressive portfolio and has contracted for a range of clients that include digital agencies and advertising agencies. During his 5 year professional career he has worked in both team environments as well as a sole developer.

My candidate has all the working rights to live and work in Australia however has been educated in the United States, and has international experience from US and NZ based agencies.

He is now relocated to Australia due to family commitments and is very keen to get into the Australian Market.

Not only has he developed the front end on numerous web sites, but one his key achievements was developing a web based application that was used by a major home building company to provide their customers a virtual tour of the property.

He is currently looking to get started on a base salary of $70,000 or open to contract opportunities.

Interested? What to do next…

1) Wow this guy sounds awesome! How do I get in contact with him?

Simple, give me a call or reply to this email and I can shoot over a copy of his CV and organise an interview.

I’m also in contact regularly with talented PHP developers, Front End Developers, Mobile Application Developers as well as User Experience Professionals. So if you know of anyone that potentially will be in need in these fields get in touch.

2) I’m not too sure about this guy Sam.

If you would like to give me some feedback about this email or would simply like to have a chat please do not hesitate to contact me.

Negotiating pay in an interview – where do I start?

 

We all want more money, one of the top reason’s why people look for a new job is that they feel they are getting under paid. So it is easy to get caught up with salaries that are out there but are really out of our reach. What I’m going to achieve with this article is give you some pointers on negotiating salaries

On average I have 3 candidates interviewed per job with clients that I’m working with at the moment. Often they won’t get asked about salary expectations, and realistically if I have done my job correctly the client should not ask. However, clients do ask, and to be honest if it were I in the client’s shoes I would probably ask as well.

This is the part where candidates freeze up, and I do not blame them – or they same something that unfortunately loses them credibility. If you are being represented for the role by a recruitment agent, let them handle this on your behalf. What I inform my candidates to always say as an automatic reply is “Sam is handling this on my behalf”.  At this point of time, the conversation might go to an awkward silence or an off key laugh and this is fine, let the interviewer bring it back..  Here is one point that I would love to make clear, if you are being represented by an agent for a position – use this line.

Why? It is my job to get you the best possible salary, within reason, of course. I want you to be happy in your next opportunity and I most certainly do not want to be having this conversation again in a couple of months time because you feel you are being under paid.  Secondly, it’s no secret that we get paid on commission, so the higher you get paid, the more I get paid- it’s in our interest to secure you the best deal. Thirdly, it makes me the bad guy in the negotiation and puts it back on your agent to do their job.

But what if I’m applying for a role directly? Negotiating is hard. I’m by no means a master in it. However, the first rule that I’ve learn is – never name your price first. An easy to get around this is by answering the question with a question of your own. You can always ask what is on offer? Or a better answer is – I feel that money, while is an important factor, it’s not the only factor.  How about we find out more about each other and the role? Afterwards you will be in a position to make me an offer granted that I’m suitable for the role. This is a great line, it shows empathy and adds value to both parties whilst putting off the negotiation to a later stage and it puts the ball in the court of your employer.

Now there are going to be times, when your potential employer will push back and possibly demand an answer. Not the best spot to be in, and it could make you sweat. However here is an answer that I give my candidates and feel free to use this. Think of a salary that you are comfortable with, and say Currently I am on $X (what you are comfortable with), Ideally what I am looking for is $Y(the ideal salary for you) , However, for the perfect role I could be flexible on what I am ideally looking for.

The last sentence here is critical, and there is one word in it that backs you as a top tiered professional. “Perfect”. The perfect role – what is the perfect role? Well that is for you to decide. Saying this allows you to come back against offers that are below what you expect and say hey – are you offering me the perfect role?

Remember job interviews are a 2 way street. This is the time where you are demonstrating your value to the organization. It is also the time where the organization is demonstrating its value to you. Use this to your advantage to get the salary you deserve.

Motivation for the year ahead – start as you mean to go on

Great read from the MD to kick off 2013:

Motivation for the year ahead – start as you mean to go on.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

I really hope you enjoyed your time off (if you were lucky enough to get some!) and spent some quality time with loved ones and family. What did I get up to? Well, a lot of surfing, and a lot of golfing – but I spent more time in the sand than David Hasselhoff!

I know that I am about to enter a very busy time recruitment wise so I have also spent the last couple of weeks developing my candidate pool in my spare time. I am currently working with some very talented contractor’s as well as candidates looking to move into a full time positions in the new year. So I thought that I’d share a couple with you all…

Here are some of my interview notes:

Need a PHP developer?

• My candidate is currently at working on one of the most heavily populated webserver in Australia.
• Working in an Agile environment that is focused around 2 week sprint cycles this candidate is well equipped to handle varied work loads.
• One of the main achievements here was rolling all of their databases of over 2 million customers to a new email integration system that automatically sent changes to a third party.
• He is able to hit the ground running and pick things up quickly, works well in a team and also independently
• He is a master in PHP, Python and other backend software writing.
• He has also obtained a Master’s degree in an exotic European location. Where he attained international experience with 2 start up company’s working as their back end PHP developer to get their projects up and running. One of the companies that he worked for was just bought by a major US organisation for an undisclosed amount.
• Prior to that he was employed at a leading digital agency, where he developed a solid software engineering experience.
• One of his major achievements here was developing a product called OCA – that is now a notification and emergency management system. This assist’s with information flow through organisations such as national emergency services.
• He is looking to move for a base salary of $80,000.

 

Thinking going mobile? iOS Developer:

• My candidate has major experience in the financial industry developing some large scale enterprise applications that thousands of Australians use on a daily basis.
• One includes an app for business using the payway service, which took him about 6 weeks to finish from scratch. This is for one of the BIG 4 banks and is a Mobile PayWay is a new product for small businesses wanting to accept credit card payments from other’s mobile.
• The application can accept Visa or MasterCard® payments in real-time and receive an immediate response; view lasted transaction details and refund transactions; send receipt to customer via e-mail.
• His latest major project was working on the  same financial institution for an iPAD app with a redesign UI/UX for a drop and drag feature where he had to studies requirements and work with the UX team to keep the design features within the vision. The main feature of the app is the drop and drag functionality of the application.
• Loves creating apps that benefit society and making people’s lives easier.
• He has also worked at one of Australia’s leading mobile application agencies where he worked on updating and modifying another different big 4 bank’s mobile application.
• Has been developing mobile applications for 5 years since 2008 Android and 2010 iOS.
• He is preparing a mobile application to help students prepare for exams.
• In his spare time he likes to play tennis, likes to swim and hang out on the Australian sand.
• Is available at a day rate of $645 exc. Gst.

 

If any of these candidates match what you are looking for in some current projects that you have in mind please get in touch. I am also working very closely with Front End Developers and User Experience professionals as well as PHP and Mobile applications masters.

Please do not hesitate to contact me.

Best regards,

Sam

PHP? Contracting? Need a new contract for the new year?

 

 

 

It’s the end of the year and I have a great Christmas present for the PHP community – a new contract! Contractor’s and talented people looking for a change next year get in touch! If you are ready to join a great iconic Australian brand, get out of agency land and get into cutting some code like you know you should be – do not hesitate , read on and apply!

CLICK HERE TO APPLY

Due to an increased demand of their project pipeline, this well established Sydney based company is in need talented Mid-Level PHP developer’s :

• Continue your career with a great Australian Company
• Use cutting edge technologies
• 6 month contract

Key Requirements:

• 3-5 years PHP development experience
• Examples of where you have built websites from scratch using PHP
-OR-
• Strong PHP skills with experience with software development for web based applications  (not just toyed around with PHP)

What you will be:

• You will be a strong back end PHP developer with the ability to work in the Front end with the necessary languages.
• Exposure to a PHP Framework (Code Igniter, ZEND, CAKE, Symphony) advantageous however if you are a pure software developer with PHP still apply!

You will have:

• Previous examples of web applications of Software that is written in PHP
• Strong communication skills and an ability to work well within a team
• Willingness to learn
• Degree in Software Engineering

You will love developing in PHP, and be able to hit the ground running here to take care of this great company’s new software requirements.

CLICK HERE TO APPLY

Phunconference 3.0

 

I love to get out in the numerous communities that I engage with during my time as a consultant in the digital applications world, and it being the festive season these Meet-ups usually are bags of fun.  I strolled down to the CMS mixer at the end of last month and enjoyed a few pints with people from all of the various CMS communities. It was a great time to share a few pints with the Drupal, Joomla!, WordPress and Magento communities –each of which love their chosen CMS for very valid reasons.

Thursday night was a bit more structured and not as much of a party, of course there was some free beer and pizza thanks to the Spinifex and Ninefold team, however this Phunconference encouraged a  lot of discourse for these young and old software developers.

Topics we are asked from the audience and then voted for to be discussed. Then people were split up into 3 groups over 4 separate occasions to discuss the various topics. You could swap between groups at will, encouraging discussion between multiple talks.

I was lucky enough to part take in 2 discussions and learn a  lot from the different members of the community.

The first was an intense discussion about mobile applications or rather the process  of using tools such as phone gap to create effective native mobile apps. A lot of discourse was generated about the subject, how the next release of ZEND will incorporate similar features to allow users to do exactly the same thing. Great topic as I was genuinely intrigued about how mobile applications have been absorbed by the software development community that have had to change their software to cater for this market. Also Drupal 8 will incorporate some amazing features to allow it to create effective mobile applications for tomorrow’s ideas.

My second sitting was the heated debate on which PHP framework is better to use and why. We had people in ZEND’s corner, people backing Symphony, hailing CAKE, exclaiming their loyalty to CodeIgniter and promoting Yii. All of which had valid arguments as to which framework allowed you to manipulate you web applications and sites better.

The main aspects of why frameworks were better suited to different peoples tastes than others were down to two main reasons, speed and simplicity. While others like the challenge of more complex frameworks to get more effective tasks done, most people are willing to sacrifice this in order to get tasks completed faster – especially in an agency environment. It was great to see some passionate people talk about the things that they love.

Unfortunately I had to leave soon after the second discussion and I missed the lightening round talks which I was going to par take in, however event organiser Dave Clark has promised me a spot on the mike next time. It was a great way to spend the Thursday evening and it certainly opened a few doors to areas of PHP that I had no idea about previously, not to mention the fact that I got to mix with some very talented people. Can’t wait till 4.0!

Need a Front End Developer?

 

It’s a very busy time of year and talented contractors are in high demand during at the moment. I’m working directly with a Front End Developer Guru that could be your next gun for hire!  This professional pixel pusher will get you through this busy period. Interested? Read on… 

My candidate has over 7 years of professional experience which was started at major financial institutions. During his time in the corporate world he developed skills such as working in a team environment and developing structured, clean websites to incorporate good UX.

From 2008-10 my candidate enjoyed working in start-up land and developed some invaluable skills in developing websites and the front end of numerous web applications here he also developed his skill set in user experience architecture with designing site wireframes and incorporating SEO principles in his design.

During the past 2 years my candidate has contracted out for numerous digital agencies and some of the great work that he can take credit for include not for profit digital campaigns that helped people quit smoking, raise money for cancer and encourage NSW Rugby Union.

Recently a major piece of work which he was involved in was designing proof of concept for ideas to roll out for the nations fast food giants to turn their menu and point of purchase into a fully-fledged digital system that is totally responsive. This work involved working around the clock to tight deadlines under enormous pressure.

In his spare time he enjoys spending time with his friends and coming up with hip ideas to entertain themselves – his latest, invading his local park with a giant homemade slippy slide to welcome the festive season.

This talented Front End Developer has dedicated his career in mastering the necessary languages needed for beautiful front end development and stays up to date with new trends and changes to technologies.

He is available for contract work immediately – contact me if you would like to find out more…

sam.elderfield@ambition.com.au

Ph: 02 9248 6228