🗞 Is a 4-day working week here to stay?
Plus, we speak to Jessie Auguste on how to deal with the discomfort of growth in your tech career 🧑💻
Hey! 👋 This edition is brought to you by Yorkshire Water.
Water is Yorkshire’s lifeblood. Rise to the challenge of using your technology skills in innovative ways to help us look after this valuable resource, so millions of people can rely on it every day to live, work and thrive.
Join us and help transform the technology that Yorkshire relies on.
📲 Big Tech & Startups
Image source: The New Yorker
A really interesting thought piece this week was about how Big Tech now decides what children are born. Hear us out.
It’s now normal for people to meet through dating apps, gone are the days of it being a taboo subject. Online dating is the done thing and if dating apps are biased, then the algorithm can have a direct impact on the rest of your life - depending on who you do or don’t meet. The latest report claims that Tinder is discriminating against older people and LGBTQ+. Research by Which? discovered that over-50s had to pay about 46 percent more than under-30s for the same product, a difference of £23.19 a year. Gay and lesbian users are coughing up 8 percent more than their heterosexual counterparts. Is this fair?
Whether or not it’s done intentionally, these stories that continue to come out should be a concern to people. These apps integrate with our lives and could be having more of an impact on our daily life than we realise. Just some food for thought.
🔭 Science & Futuristic Tech
Image source: BBC News
One of Britain’s largest supermarkets has recently opened a ‘trial’ store in London, allowing Aldi customers to complete their shopping with a till-free experience. How does this work you might wonder? The AldiShop&Go app will allow customers to shop as they please, later receiving a bill once they have left the store. 🛒
Store manager, Lewis Esparon, said "For us, steps like this are always about improving the customer experience and the whole team are looking forward to being on-hand and ready to help to ensure that experience is as smooth as ever."
This advancement to shopping experiences is only going to grow, as similar brands are following in their footsteps! "Amazon was the main catalyst for this trend and the pandemic has really accelerated this."
Speaking of Amazon, they are set to open a real-world clothing store later this year - their mission is to fix some of the pain points associated with traditional retail stores and will allow customers to browse via their smartphones. 📲
💻 Programming, Data & Design
Our latest app release is now LIVE 🚀
Check out how it’ll change your job searching experience 👇
🔥 New features
Filter & search 2.0 - New set of filters to search for any combination of roles or companies.
Matching 2.0 - The new algorithm means users will always see the most relevant results based on their tack stack.
Hybrid roles are here!
An update prompt - it’s best to always have the latest version of the app to help with your job search.
🪲 As always the usual bug fixes, so you don’t feel like pulling your hair out!
📲 Available on iOS & Android
🚀 v1.477.2 (iOS & Android)
⚙️ Miscellaneous
Netflix donates benches across the UK following the success of ‘After Life - season 3’ - encouraging more people to talk about their mental health 🧠
Facebook and Instagram have announced plans for their latest feature which allows users to create, display and sell NFTs 🔥
A 4-day working week trial has been launched in the UK, could this be the future of work? 🏢
📝 Guest Blog
Advice and guidance from Software Engineer, Jessie Auguste: Dealing with the discomfort of growth in your tech career
If we always do what we know, how do we learn new things and grow as a person? The fear of the unknown, and the discomfort and growing pains you have in your life and in particular your career, are good things that you shouldn't shy away from.
“A key pillar for me has been finding and engaging with communities. I have found so much support and guidance as a result of making an effort to be engaged, and it has helped me immensely. Especially on the days where I’m struggling to see my own value or feel lost, just being in a space (virtual or physical) with people who understand me, and can offer advice and support is incredibly validating. I always leave feeling refreshed and comforted in a way that makes me more able to return with an appetite for more growth.”
Read more of Jessie’s advice and guidance - and remember to share with others to inspire them.
Jessie is also a community and partner relationships manager at Black Valley. They’re on the lookout for mentors to help accelerate the learning of black talent in their careers - check it out. 🚀
🔦 Highlighted Opportunities
Street 📌 Manchester
Senior Software Engineer - Open to remote
Full Stack Developer - Open to remote
Atom bank 📌 Durham
Senior iOS Engineer 4 Day Week - Open to remote
Lead Backend Engineer 4 Day Week - Open to remote
LeoVegas UK 📌 Newcastle upon Tyne
Java Developer - Open to remote
hedgehog lab 📌 Newcastle upon Tyne
Python Developer - Open to remote
Senior Android Developer - Open to remote
Contino 📌 London
DevSecOps - Local only
Gear4music 📌 Manchester
Senior DevOps Platform Engineer - Open to remote
✋ ICYMI
🎙 The Haystack: Tech Uncovered podcast is live!
Tech Uncovered is all about getting the down-low on the latest in tech, sharing and inspiring others through tech leaders across the industry.
In the first episode, we speak to Jaz Chana, Technology Director at cinch, a UK tech company that has transitioned from start-up to scale-up, supported by huge financial investment and a community of almost 200 digital, engineering, marketing, data, commercial and customer experience professionals. They discuss:
🛠️ The excitement and challenges of building an engineering team
💜 Maintaining culture as a company scales
🧲 Attracting tech talent
Featuring Mike Davies, COO, and co-founder of Haystack and Start-Up Entrepreneur of the Year 💥
You can find us on all your usual podcast platforms 👇
🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts here: https://apple.co/3GI00xX
🎧 Listen on Spotify here: https://spoti.fi/3rz5C70
🎧 Listen on YouTube here: https://lnkd.in/gqt37RqN
📚 Blog Round-up
How to become a senior software engineer
Software engineers are said to spend more time learning in their careers than any other profession, starting out at a junior level then, following their accumulated experience, may progress from a mid-level to become a senior software engineer. Read more.
CSS practices to avoid as a Web Developer
Some people think that CSS is difficult to learn. There are lots of crutches and even some magic, which makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot. After some research about what can we do, I’ve come up with five developer habits that I don’t like and will show you how to avoid them. Read more.