🎙 Is this thing on?
Hey 👋 This edition is brought to you by The Verve Group.
The Verve Group is a group of businesses with a very bold vision. We’re here to change the face of finance; both within the industry and outside it. The world of finance has often been one of the last industries to embrace new technology. It’s something that we at The Verve Group have been working hard to change. But to do this, we need to continue to build our ever-evolving tech team to design and develop industry-changing technology and create FinTech for the future of the industry.
So, if you have an understanding of programming languages like PHP and JavaScript, a passion for building technology that makes a difference and the ability to work as part of a fast-moving team, then we might be the right fit for you.
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🔦 Highlighted Opportunities
📌 North East
Drummond Central: Full Stack Developer - Junior, Mid
ION: Software Developer - Grad, Junior
📌 North West
Street Group: Data Scientist - Mid, Senior
Fatsoma: Senior iOS Engineer - Mid, Senior
📌 Yorkshire & West Midlands
Saggezza: .Net Developer - Junior, Mid
Yorkshire Building Society: DevOps Engineer - Mid, Senior
📌 London
Moneybox: Senior Software Engineer .Net, C - Mid
Lloyds Banking Group: Splunk Senior SME - Mid
📌 Remote
Sleepiest: Principle iOS Developer - Mid, Senior, Lead
StormX: Senior Data Analyst - Mid, Senior
📲 Big Tech & Startups
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Image source: The Verge
There’s been a rise over the past few years in the consumption of audio content. Everyone now (including us...) has a podcast and the rise of the use of audiobooks 🎧 (41.5% of Millennials and 43% of Gen X engage with audiobooks) has led to more companies investing in audio content.
Social platforms like Clubhouse and Twitter are investing more money in this technology - even Slack now has voice note functionality! The latest addition to this is Spotify who has recently acquired an audiobook company. The team is said to be focusing on innovation to make audiobooks a richer experience.
🔭 Science & Futuristic Tech
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Unfortunately, in the UK 1 in 6 people report experiencing a common mental health problem (like anxiety and depression) in any given week. It’s something that needs talking about and help, for those who need it, needs to be more accessible.
Researchers in Japan are currently working on an effective nasally-injected antidepressant brain drug, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Controlled Release. There’s lots of scientific stuff explaining it all that you can read more of here. But the highlights are that it takes effect within 20 minutes and it is opening up the door to futuristic brain delivery methods for drugs - a very exciting prospect for scientists and the future of medicine. 🔬
💻 Programming, Design & Data
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Image source: IEEE Spectrum
If you’re new to the field of software development, it can be tricky to know where to start and which programming languages to learn first! Most people recommend focusing on the in-demand languages, which have a more common use (but that does of course depend on your career goals) ⬇️
JavaScript
JavaScript, a scripting language, is primarily a front-end language, although it can also be used in back-end and mobile development. It’s proven popular amongst developers for the past 8 years and that could be down to the fact that it’s almost impossible to not use it in some sort of way.
📌 Currently 341 opportunities on the Haystack app which have JavaScript within their tech stack.
Python
Python has become more popular in recent years, being recognised as a general-purpose language, meaning it can be used to create a variety of different programs and isn’t specialised for any specific problems. It’s also very beginner-friendly!
📌 Currently 226 opportunities on the Haystack app which have Python within their tech stack.
⚙️ Miscellaneous
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Alt, a collectable card trading platform, raised $75m in Series B funding to expand further 💰
“Take a Break” feature, which launched on Instagram, lets users schedule in-app reminders that encourage a timeout after 10, 20 and 30 minutes of continuous use ⏰
Ever wonder how lucrative the market is to create pumpkin patches? The Hustle uncovered the economics of it 🎃
🧑💻 Developer Stories
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Meet Amber 👋 Junior Software Engineer at American Express, Code First Girls instructor & Ambassador and Advisory Board Member at GirlDreamer 🔥
Amber shares her journey into software development from a non-technical background and her mission to empower more women to do the same. 🎉
Coming from a degree in economics and accounting, how did you first get interested in software development and learning the skill? ⚒️
I love this question – it all started in 2018 when I did a Mergers and Acquisitions internship in Madrid. I had big ambitions about working at the Big 4 (PwC, KPMG, EY and Deloitte) once I had graduated, but had an alarming wake up call when my mentor told me that I’d have to do financial exams while working and if I didn’t pass, then I would be fired! I had absolutely no idea, and to this day I’m so grateful that I sought out a mentor in the industry that helped me realise that this route definitely wasn’t for me. I’m one who likes to plan and work towards goals, so I started to look into the effects of automation of manual jobs and the best skills to learn to be marketable in the future and that’s when I became interested at looking at a role in tech and possibly learning how to code.
What do you think companies, schools or society, in general, should do to encourage more young people, particularly women, into fields like software development?
I believe two of the greatest problems are the tech job applications (ridiculously challenging coding tests) and lack of training! Similar to what Sky and PA Consulting have been doing, they are providing free coding courses for women to learn how to code and offer guidance on how to apply for their graduate roles. Also, Code First Girls offer a Nanodegree – it has a Data stream and a Software Engineering stream, it’s a 16 week evening course (Monday-Thursday evenings) where all positions on the course are sponsored by partner companies, several of whom are set to be offered jobs at the end of the course. Software development can be seen as a “boys club”, especially with the gatekeeper tech bros on Twitter 😷. It’s important we introduce young girls and women to coding from a young age and show them that there’s women who look like them in the industry!
Read more of Amber’s inspiring story. 🔥
✍️ Blog Round-up
Meet Ruth, Self-Taught Software Engineer and Trans Woman
In celebration of Transgender Awareness Week, we’re re-sharing Ruth’s story - a Self-Taught Software Engineer and Trans Woman. 🏳️⚧️ Ruth shares how she got into software development and how her transition impacted her work. Read more.
Integration & Unit Testing For Node.js
Software testing verifies that our code works as intended and meets the technical, functional, and user requirements that it needs to. Testing is a vital part of developing any software but is so often overlooked by new engineers as an area to learn and develop their skills. Read more.
Secret Dev Tools for Every Code Newbie
Being a developer means that you may find yourself on a continuous learning journey. The discovery of useful tips and tools is always a bonus - these tools are not commonly recommended in online tutorials or articles, and might not be well-known to code newbies, but they deserve to be shared! Read more.