International Programmers’ Day—Interview with Ivette Rubio, Talent Consultant and Tech Recruitment Expert

Programmers’ Day is celebrated on September 13, or the 256th day of the year. The day honors programmers and thinkers who make our lives easier by innovating and designing programs.

The day’s celebration is based on the binary code. Every programmer knows that 256 is a special number. It is represented by an eight-bit byte, 256 equals 2 to the eighth power. This digit makes it the highest power of two, which is less than 365. When translated to binary code, the day reads 1 0000 0000.

Talking about programmers’ challenges

To celebrate this day, we talk about challenges for programmers with Ivette Rubio, Talent Consultant and Tech Recruitment expert at MBI Talent Group. She shares her experience recruiting developers, tips for better hiring, and the outlook she sees in this industry.

A developer is an individual that builds and creates software and applications. He or she[1] writes, debugs, and executes the source code of a software application. It’s the key talent behind all software applications. Generally, developers are well versed in at least one programming language and proficient in the art of structuring and developing software code for software or a program. Depending on the job role and type of software developed, a programmer may be classified as a software developer, application developer, mobile developer, or web developer, among other titles.

For Ivette Rubio, the hardest thing about attracting a programmer is that “the good ones are always working”, so they are busy and don’t have time to attend interviews or read emails. Another thing is that “they are very protective of their cell phone numbers, so recruiters can’t call them to invite them to come in for interviews”, she adds.

On the other hand, she mentions that if a recruitment process includes appointments or if they are too long due to poor planning, tech candidates lose the desire to participate in future trials.

What skills need a programmer?

Although the primary job role is writing code, a developer also may gather requirements for software, design or overall software architecture, software documentation, and other related software development processes. For Ivette, the greatest skills a programmer should have are:

  • Ability to solve problems, understand the complexity, and be able to solve them by giving alternatives to fix them.
  • Mathematical skills because to make a code, you have to know about mathematical algorithms. You have to know them and be agile with them because they require critical thinking. Ability to accept changes and be able to start from scratch in a work cycle.
  • Tolerance to changes, to be motivated and self-directed, since many times this work is self-directed.

For Ivette, the best part of working with developers is Tech Recruiting because when you are looking for technology it is very concise.

And she gives an example: “For a recruiter, what you are looking for is to perform an interview by capabilities, Then you define the technologies,  so you can ask how many years the candidate has. Ongoing experience in reviewing the type of projects, and what they’ve done, and you don’t go too far beyond this point So those kinds of skills are very, very, very, very measurable and very identifiable as well”

About the difficulties of working with developers, she mentions that the market is very competitive because there are a lot of job offers. Specialized developers, especially in Mexico, where Mexican companies are looking for good developers. U.S. companies are also looking for the best talent, so the war for talent is real.

Developer Landscape

About the developer landscape, Ivette said that the challenge is always to specialize in a programming language and to be very good at it. Also, the challenge is that everyone is IT clever, in the cloud, with the whole remote working thing that becomes even more necessary with technologies like Adobe, Google, Cloud, etc.

“Candidates need to reach an advanced level of English because there are still developers who can’t speak English. So it’s like a brake on their career, and they always have to keep up with the new things that are coming out” – Ivette Rubio

Ivette’s career as a Tech Recruiter can be resumed by working in companies completely dedicated to software. She began to have an affinity with technological profiles, understanding very well how to search for candidates, what questions to ask them, and how to deliver information to customers.

It is expected that there will be no future in the field of developers beyond what is expected, but she believes that they will continue to work remotely or in a hybrid way, so they will have to adapt to the way companies work.

Regarding the last pandemic, Ivette Rubio commented that it benefited developers and even raised salaries.

“There are many good job opportunities and that’s very good for them. As for me, I can hire even if they are in Colombia, México, Ecuador or other countries”

Tips for programmers:

As a final comment, she shared with us some tips for developers:

  • Take the time to study and reach an advanced level of English
  • Be open to selection processes.
  • Specialize in something at least once a year.
  • Pick a language and go around and specialize in it so that you can be an expert.
  • Understand the position very well, understand the technology you’re looking for very well, and research with the client.

Tips for Tech Recruiters:

And for Tech Recruiters:

  • Taking care of the relationship with the candidate is always super crucial.
  • Maintain them always very informed, keep them always involved in the process and act as much as possible.
  • Keep them hooked to the position, to the company that is looking for them, that wants to hire them.

“Two things I always remember is that I think it’s a great career to have. It came to me by chance, but it was a great career because it allows you a lot of flexibility.” – Ivette Rubio

So to all the developers, Happy Day, and keep your language flowing.

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