🏡 The big WFH debate
Are we about to see a Crypto takeover? Will OnlyFans make their minds up? Who knows...
Hey 👋 Welcome to the latest edition of our newsletter.
Check out the first episode of🎙 Haystack: Tech Uncovered, featuring Dylan McKee - co-founder and CEO of Nebula Labs. Listen to the full episode and discover the ongoing series, where we cover all things tech, software development, design, tech hiring and tech culture. 🚀
🔥 Big Tech & Startups
giphy
Big Tech’s Thoughts on Remote Working
The latest in the working from home debate. Firstly, let’s be clear that there is a big difference between remote working, flexible working and hybrid working. Remote working means working from wherever you want - whether that’s your house, your mum's house, your local coffee shop, a coffee shop 500 miles away, literally anywhere. Flexible working generally means flexible hours or some kind of flexibility as to if and when you come into the office, and hybrid means you’re expected in the office a certain amount of the time. Can companies please start getting this right 🤯
Many of the big tech companies are struggling with the idea that a lot of employees don’t want to go back to the office full time. In a recent survey, 95 per cent of tech workers surveyed said they’d take the option to work from home permanently.
For example, Netflix boss, Reed Hastings claims he sees ‘no positives in remote working’. Microsoft and Uber are two companies that have said they expect employees to be in the offices at least 50 per cent of the time. Apple expects employees back in the office 3 days a week.
Would this policy put you off these companies? We’re interested in hearing your thoughts - Leave a comment below!
Here are some of our top picks for FULLY remote roles 👇
🌴 Cronofy 📌 Hiring for a Senior Software Engineer, and a Mid-Level Software Engineer
🌴 Opencast 📌 Hiring for Node.JS Developer and a Head of Architecture.
🌴 Street 📌 Hiring for Senior Full Stack Developer and a Data Engineer.
🚀 Science & Futuristic Tech
Image source: medium
Facebook is pushing ahead with its plans to roll out a cryptocurrency wallet in order to fix the broken payments system. 📲The social network has big plans and ambitions to tackle the finance industry. Facebook Pay has already seen mass adoption and is currently being used in 160 countries in 55 currencies and enabled more than $100bn in the past four quarters. It’s still being rolled out in the UK, fingers crossed we’ll all see this feature soon as a starting point 🤞
PayPal has also announced this week that it has launched its cryptocurrency service in the UK, marking its first international expansion out of the US for the crypto product.
On a slightly gloomier crypto-related note - the leading Japanese exchange, Liquid, was hit by hackers and almost $100m is estimated to have been stolen. These thefts are on the rise, with last week recording around $600m being stolen from another blockchain site. 🤑
🗣 Crypto your jam? Fancy working for one of THE hottest Fintech startups out there? ️🔥 Meet Bottlepay, they’re on a mission to make Bitcoin accessible for everyone 👉 and they’re hiring.
🏆 In It to Win It
It’s time for a Haystack competition!
For the chance to win a pair of wireless headphones 🎧 head over to our Twitter and Instagram to enter.
T&Cs are available on request.
👨💻 Programming, Design & Data
Image source: digitaltrends
Microsoft recently announced a HUGE update, one that we can all get excited about, Windows 11, with hints that it will be released in October. The new update primarily focuses on hybrid working and learning 👏 but that’s not all!
It seems that those rumours are, in fact, true and we’ll be seeing two noticeable new elements including a floating and centred taskbar and Start menu. They’ve even binned square boxes too - rounded corners and menus throughout Windows 11 are some of their latest features, as is an Action Center with a redesigned look focusing more on cleaner sliders and rounded buttons.
Microsoft seems to have pushed the boat out with this update and have even kept the gamers 🎮 in mind with “superior graphics, incredible speed, and a huge selection of games.”
It appears that they’ve already started testing out the new update, so if you’ve got serious FOMO you’ll need to opt-in to the Windows Insider Programme.
⚙️ Miscellaneous
Image source: Instagram (@willsmith)
What’s new in tech? Here’s the DL:
Tesla announces an I, Robot-esque humanoid bot. Will Smith isn’t pleased.
Tim Cook celebrates his 10 year anniversary as Apple CEO.
OnlyFans announces they’re banning explicit content. Then decides they’re not.
Facebook announces, Horizon Workrooms their VR meeting room software for the Oculus headset.
Twitter goes mad for NFTs. Justin Sun, the founder of Tron, recently spent over half a million dollars on some pixel art of a rock.
How are you finding the Haystack App? If you have a second, consider leaving us an App/Play Store review!
🧨 Highlighted Opportunities
Dev
BYP Network: Software Developer - 📌 London / Open to remote
Street: Senior PHP Developer - 📌 Manchester / Open to remote
Atom Bank: Senior iOS Engineer - 📌 Durham / Open to remote
Data
Atom Bank: Data Science Engineer - 📌 Durham / Open to remote
Peak: Data Engineer - 📌 Manchester
Asda: Data Analyst - 📌 Leeds
Design
Gear4music: UI Designer - 📌 Manchester / York
EPAM: Senior - Lead UI UX Designer - 📌 Newcastle upon Tyne
Sage: Experience Designer - 📌 Newcastle upon Tyne
📖 Developer Stories
Meet Jacob, a senior software developer at one of the UK’s leading health retailers Holland & Barrett.
Hi Jacob! 👋 Thanks for joining us to chat. How are you? Can you introduce yourself and give us a little bit of information about your background?
Thank you for having me! I am a self-taught software engineer with a strong focus on front-end technologies, primarily React, TypeScript and the Jamstack. I currently work at Holland & Barrett as a Senior Software Engineer and have been working across different industries over the years. I started my professional career in design, but have been coding for as long as I can remember.
What one key piece of advice would you give to junior developers looking to take that next step to become mid-senior level?
When I was less experienced I found it quite hard to navigate the hiring processes. Getting a foot in the door can be hard when you’re just starting, or don’t have much to show just yet. Therefore, after I was hired for my most recent job at Holland & Barrett I decided to write down my experience and what my recipe of success looks like.
The key piece of advice I would give a junior developer looking to move into a more senior role is to focus on one thing and become an expert in that. For example, if you focus on the front-end, CSS is a very underestimated skill that most developers nowadays forget about. Everybody knows the basics of CSS, but the focus for most developers is JavaScript (let’s be honest – JS is much harder than CSS), but if you become the go-to person for advanced CSS questions, this is a very valuable skill that will get you recognised.
Read more of Jacob’s story here.
📚 Blog Round-up
Skills Required to Be a Full Stack Developer: A Checklist
If you’re looking to pursue a career as a Full Stack Developer, it can be hard to know the specific skills required for the role, as well as the level of knowledge needed. Being Full Stack is not about being an expert, it’s about knowing enough to get a system up and running, being able to search for the right things on Google and have a sensible conversation with someone who is an expert in their respective areas. Read more.
6 CSS Shorthand Properties to Improve Your Web Application
CSS is a language used to describe how a web page should look like. With CSS you can do an array of options, including setting the position, colours, fonts and the layout of each element in an HTML page. Read more.
TypeScript 4.4: The Good, The Bad and The Not So Bad
On August 12th, TypeScript 4.4 Release Candidate (RC) was announced. This means that the changes have been finalized, and an official, stable release is coming shortly after a few additional bug 🦠 fixes. Take a look at what’s new, how it could impact your development experience, and how to give it a try right now! Read more.