💊 Latest in health tech, big tech & start-ups
An open letter to big tech ✍️ plus, incredible career advice from React Developer Yusuf 💥
Hey 👋 welcome to the latest edition of our newsletter.
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💥 Big Tech & Start-ups
Image sourced from an article by Boston Globe
An Open Letter to Big Tech
The recent open letter to BrewDog regarding their company culture and treatment of employees reminded us of the open letter to Alphabet, Google’s parent company, that surfaced earlier this year. 👇
“Alphabet does not provide a safe environment for those who face harassment in the workplace. Even when HR confirms harassment, no action is taken to make the reporter safe. For example, Emi Nietfeld shared in the New York Times, “My harasser still sat next to me. My manager told me HR wouldn’t even make him change his desk, let alone work from home or go on leave.” Continue reading here.
Big companies will continue to be chastised for their poor and damaging culture. There will be many more to come. Oh, and a spokesperson from Alphabet said they’ve “made significant improvements to our overall process”. 🤷
More recently, we’ve seen Big Tech under scrutiny and societal pressure to #FightRacism ✊ after the racial abuse that was directed towards the England players during the Euros.
“As many of us warned, the lack of adequate action by social media companies to combat online discrimination has once again left players in the public eye subject to horrendous levels of abuse... Racist abuse causes trauma, not only to those who are targeted, but it also has a painful and triggering impact on others who view this online.”
Haystack Culture Heroes 💛
A few highlights from companies across the UK who just have great culture.
Sage - A North East tech powerhouse with the CEO, Steve Hare rated the highest CEO during the pandemic. Currently hiring in Newcastle 📌
Auto Trader UK - An incredible 93% would recommend to a friend, and 100% approve of the CEO according to Glassdoor ratings - and they’re hiring!
Gear4Music - Based in Manchester & York, this bunch embrace individual personalities and actively encourage a healthy work-life balance 🧘 They’re currently hiring for a UI Designer.
🔭 Science & Future Tech
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🔥 Hot girl summer & the latest with health tech
Here it is, the glorious British summertime (for now). PSA: Remember to look after your health, both mentally and physically. We know this can go by the wayside when you’re busy, and now restrictions have lifted you may well be busier than in lockdown life. But, don’t sacrifice your health.
Talking of health… You’re happy sharing data with your Apple Watch or Fitbit, right? But what about third parties? In the UK there is controversy around data sharing with digital diagnostic tools. AI systems are able to sift through records and make sense of this data in order to help drive the development of new drugs and treatments.
The NHS holds an incredible amount of data, so the Conservative party has shown intent to create a central digital database - where AI tools can be used. The Labour party responded by querying plans to sell NHS health data "to unknown commercial interests for purposes unknown, has no legitimacy”. What do you think, where would you be happy for your data to be shared?
Ones to watch:
Babylon. Unicorn startup Babylon utilises artificial intelligence diagnostic software to provide a range of easily accessible healthcare services
Current Health. Monitoring patients’ health through wearable tech, which is worn on the upper arm and tracks vital signs, using advanced AI it then tracks trends and risks
Unmind. Having raised £13.8 million, Unmind provides a mental health platform that helps businesses improve employees’ mental wellbeing.
How are you finding the Haystack App? If you have a second, consider leaving us an App/Play Store review!
💻 Programming, Design & Data
Yep - we’re going to talk about Haystack. Just a few product updates we thought you’d be interested in hearing about:
⚒️ App Updates and Fixes
- Social proof messages. You’ll now be able to see valuable information such as how many applications a job has, the glass door ratings, and how many employees are techies
- More relevant job matches ✔️
- Users can now delete old applications from their profile
- Google sign-in has arrived! 📲
- Techs attached to a job or a company look much slicker
- Brand new icons 🎉 (shoutout to our in-house designer Danny!)
💩 Of course, the usual bug-fixes
💻 As well as updates to our Employer Portal to make it easier for our partner companies to self-serve.
⚙️ Miscellaneous
There’s been a fair few tech updates this week. Here’s the DL:
Snapchat announced record revenue and the largest user growth in four years
Apparently, Bitcoin will be a “big part” of the future of Twitter 🐦
Last week Twitter announced last week they’re getting rid of Fleets
Fintech giant Revolut has launched a travel booking feature called Stays
Clubhouse is finally out of Beta and is now public to everyone
You can now pay creators on YouTube directly with a ‘Say Thanks’ feature
20% of the UK have deleted the NHS-Covid app 🦠
🚀 Highlighted Opportunities
Dev
Auto Trader: C#.Net Developer (Manchester)
Goodlord: Senior PHP Engineer (London/ Remote)
Atom Bank: Head of Advanced Engineering (Durham)
Design
hedgehog lab: Interaction/ UX Designer (Newcastle upon Tyne)
Opencast: Interaction Designer (Newcastle upon Tyne/ Remote)
Asda: Senior UX Designer (Leeds)
Data
Peak: Data Engineer (Manchester)
Asda: Data Analyst (Leeds)
Auto Trader: Data Scientist (Manchester)
📚 Developer Stories
Meet Yusuf, a recent graduate and React Native Developer based in Manchester. He landed his first job through the power of personal branding and social media.
Want to know how he did this?
I’ve written an in-depth blog post about this, but I’ll summarise how I got my first role below:
Between 2018-2020, I was documenting my journey as a CS student and aspiring developer on Instagram and made some solid connections.
I became active on LinkedIn between 2019-20, also documenting my journey on here. Again, I made some good connections here.
In August 2020, I posted to my network that I was looking for my first role in the industry, noting that it would need to be part-time because I was due to start the final year of my studies in September 2020.
On Instagram, I connected with James Bedford who I also connected with on LinkedIn. James saw this post and shared it with his large audience.
My current boss, Tom Riglar (CEO at App Sapiens) saw this post and reached out to me regarding the work they do with part-time developers. We set up a call where I talked about my experiences, and where he talked about what App Sapiens do. I then sent over my GitHub (yusufcodes) at the end as I documented a lot of my learning there.
A couple of days later, I received a job offer of Junior Developer (part-time) to work alongside the final year of my studies.
Q. What one piece of advice would you give to any Junior Developers struggling with no hands-on work experience?
Document your journey online. Give yourself some exposure, because if no one knows you exist, it will be harder for them to hire you! I think it is a great way to let future employers “get to know you” before you even get to the interview stage. Networking online (and in person once we can) will benefit you more than you may think.
I recommend having some code online for people to see, such as a GitHub account. Whatever you’re learning and building with, post it there. Even if it isn’t perfect – most of my GitHub stuff certainly isn’t perfect or pretty, but I believe it showed the willingness to learn and experiment to my current employer.
Read more of Yusuf’s journey and discover more of his tips and guidance.
♻️ Blog Round-up
10 Javascript tricks you should know to save time and effort
JavaScript is a fully-fledged dynamic programming language that can add interactivity to a website. It is beginner-friendly and provides many tools that can save a lot of effort and time if used correctly. These are the 10 'tricks’ you should know while working with JavaScript. Read more.
6 step approach to transition from Junior Developer to Senior Developer
The transition from Junior to Senior Developer doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a process that takes time. Can you perform all of the skills required to match the role of a Senior Developer? There are certain skills you need to develop first. Read more.
Java interview questions for experienced Developers
Technical Interviews are always nerve-wracking, especially when you have high expectations of getting into your dream workplace. However, with the proper guidance and preparation, there is a high possibility of conquering your next Java interview. Read more.