FAQ

Background

This page attempts to covers concepts that a technical recruiter should know when speaking to candidates.

What is cloud?

The cloud refers to running applications on another companies server. For example, Netflix doesn't own its own servers to stream movies. Instead, they store and serve the movies from Amazon Web Services (AWS). Amazon has to take care of constructing data centers, buying the computers, connecting them together, and maintaining them.

There are 3 major cloud vendors:

  • Amazon Web Services (AWS)

  • Microsoft (Azure)

  • Google Cloud

What is a programming language?

A language, like English, is a way for people to communicate with each other. A programming language is a way for an engineer to communicate with a computer, telling it what to do. For example, if a programmer wants to make the background color of a web page red, the code may look like this:


body {

background-color: red

}


The language above is called CSS.


What are the different types of roles?

Software engineering is a very broad area. For example, a software engineer working on self-driving cars may not know anything about creating web pages.


Front-end engineers - building what you see

Most software has a display that people interact with. For example, for YouTube, the interface is a video player, comment section, related videos, etc. Front-end software engineers build these types of visual elements.


Programming languages: HTML, CSS, JavaScript


Backend engineer

Also known as: server-side engineers, infrastructure engineers


Backend engineers build everything that is unseen. For example, for YouTube example, the backend handles incrementing view counts, receiving videos for upload, generating captions, etc.


Programming languages: Python, Java, Ruby


Full-stack engineer

A full-stack engineer can do both front-end and backend work.


Why do employees leave for startups?

The answer will vary depending on the individual, but these are common reasons for engineers to leave for startups:

  • Faster pace. Large companies tend to move very slowly. This is due to (1) internal politics, (2) legal departments.

  • New products/features. At large companies, there are many legacy products that require many engineers to maintain. At a startup, you get an opportunity to build something new, which is much more fun for engineers.

  • Opportunity to learn new things. Engineers tend to get bored after around 2 years. If they are pigeonholed in a company they may find it more appealing to go to a startup where they can learn about a new area. This includes topics like new programming languages or trends (e.g., blockchain, deep learning).

  • Stock options. Compensation at startups can be potentially much higher, but the risk is also much higher.

  • Promotions in title. Startups tend to be more willing to give higher titles.

  • Career trajectory. A startup may be an easier path to get promoted than at a large company. Michael Lynch posted a story about his struggles to get promoted at Google.


What's the difference between a software engineer and a software developer?


There isn't a difference. FAANG have different titles for the same role:

  • "Software Engineer" is used by Facebook, Google, Apple, and Netflix

  • "Software Development Engineer" is used by Microsoft and Amazon


In Canada, "Software Developer" is used as the title because a title with "engineer" requires a license, and there is no professional license for software.


Why do some people leave their LinkedIn profiles blank?


There are a certain set of people who are so high profile and getting paid so much that they're not really interested in looking for other jobs (example).


Why do companies prefer specific languages (as opposed to all of them)?

Many job postings will list a specific set of programming languages (e.g., Java, Python, C++). The reason is that it's more efficient for a team to work in a single or small set of languages.

It's similar to human languages (e.g., English, Spanish). Here are some analogies:

  • Some languages are closely related. For example, just as it's easy to learn Spanish if you know English, it's easy to learn Java if you know C++.

  • Just as Japanese encompasses some Chinese characters, C++ can encompass all of C.

  • Some languages are long-winded. Just as German is known for it's very long words, Java is known for its verbosity.


Is embedded software engineering backend or frontend?

Backend and frontend typically refer to web-based applications. Embedded software engineering typically refers to something more hardware oriented. So, I wouldn't classify embedded software engineering as either.


Why don't potential candidates respond to my email or LinkedIn message?

High quality candidates receive several emails from recruiters every week. It gets tiring to responding to every one of them.


What should a recruiter email say?

This thread has feedback from developers on how to craft a good recruiter email. About 80% of the responses suggest including compensation information.

https://www.levels.fyi/ provides relatively accurate compensation information. Sites like Glassdoor are very misleading because they don't include the level information (example).


Where do I recruit from in Canada?

Shopify is the biggest tech company in Canada. Canada has high-caliber universities. Two out of the three founding fathers of Deep Learning came from Canadian universities: Geoff Hinton was at University of Toronto and Yoshua Bengio was at University of Montreal.


What's the difference between DevOps and an infrastructure software engineer?

DevOps are more involved with running the day-to-day operations to keep servers up. Infrastructure software engineers are more focused on writing software.


Why is there a huge range in talent?

This is because software engineers can do anything between creating a simple web page to performing cutting edge Google Research work.


What is the prevalence of different software engineer types?

There is an inverted pyramid. product engineers are most prevalent, next are infrastructure, next are research.


Who designs the colors / pixel placements?

Typically there is a User Interface designer that works with a front-end engineer.


What are some common technical terms when recruiting a full-stack engineer?

  • CSS - programming language for front-end for styling web pages. For example, programmers use CSS to set the colors or fonts on a webpage.

  • HTML - programming language for front-end. HTML specifies the structure of the webpage. For example, you use this to place the video player on the top and comments on the bottom.

  • JavaScript - programming language for mostly frontend. This is used for controlling actions on a webpage. For example, JavaScript is used so that when you click on the "play" button, a video starts playing.

  • Python / Ruby - programming language for backend

  • Django - Python framework for web applications (mix of front-end and backend)

For a more comprehensive resource, see https://glossarytech.com/.


Analogy

It may be easiest to understand the above by using an analogy of building a house. Pretend you are a construction manager with several workers who speak different languages. Here's what it might look like:

  • You speak CSS to specify how the wallpaper should look inside the house.

  • You speak HTML to specify the structure of the visible parts of the house (e.g., where the light switches should go)

  • You speak JavaScript to specify how the light switches are connected the circuits internally to turn on and off the lights.

  • You speak Python or Ruby to specify how the pipes are connected for water.

  • Your Python-speakers use Django, a standard for how pipes should fit together, or connecting the pipes together


Spectrum Perspective

It's probably easiest to visualize this on a spectrum between backend and frontend technologies: