HR Perspective: Technical Interviews for Mobile App & Web Developers

When someone is looking for a job, there are some objectives that he or she is looking for besides a good salary. In IT, the job demands a lot of time to solve problems on a normal basis. That can sometimes be very stressful. How do the developers survive the excess work load and still stick around? Well, that's why we have an organizational culture. So, what is an organizational culture?  How you can implement it in your interviews as a recruiter?

 

Organizational Culture

Organizational culture is a set of perceptions, feelings, attitudes, habits, beliefs and ways to interact between coworkers (Gross, 2008). In human resources, we're always looking for ways to improve the workplace to have a better work environment. For example, our organizational culture promotes these six values: exceed expectations, professionalism, teamwork, integrity, fun, and learn & adapt.

HR looks for developers who are compatible with our organizational culture. Therefore, we all need to reflect this process in our interviews.  For this objective, the tech advisors, marketing and human resources worked on a new process for the “Technical Interviews”, which includes the following:

Manual of technical skillsInform all software developers about the Company's benefitsInform about new customersPhases of the Technical InterviewBest Practices for Technical Interviewers

This new process reflects our organizational culture and the manual of technical skills contain the best programming practices that all developers must have. The new phases of the technical interview reflect our values: exceeds expectations, professionalism, teamwork, integrity, fun and learn & adapt.

This process helps us to find the best developer that the company needs.  We have many types of candidates who apply.  They could be arrogant, reserved, outgoing, friendly or shy. However, most of the candidates become very nervous about the technical interviews.  Sometimes, they don't show their full potential because they are just too nervous. They could think why they are  not good enough for this position?. It's not about all the years of experience that a developer has, but it  is about what they have done during those years. We could have candidates with many years of experience and they haven't done anything relevant, or we could have candidates with a few years of experience and maybe they have the experience developing many amazing things.

We mainly look for good developers who are passionate about computers and app or mobile development, and who are looking to learn new mobile and web technologies. They should make the development focused on giving the end users more friendly, dynamic and intuitive experience. iTexico’s developers like to work with faster, easier, and cleaner code. They are owners of their projects and they interact amicably with their customers.

Now, I'm going to give some tips to the interviewers about the process that we use at iTexico. I have asked several candidates about their experience with iTexico and other companies. Here is a list of things that they are looking for in an interview:

The interviewer has to evaluate more of the engineering skills than the theoretical part.SincerityThe interviewer has to be polite.The interviewer has tested my logical thinking.The interviewer makes me feel comfortable.The interviewer responds to my answers nicely.The interviewer has fun.The interviewer makes me feel important.The interviewer thanks me for the time that I spent on the interview.They communicate the requirements of the position and the work environment.The interview has been entertaining.

Do you have all these points mentioned above during the interviews? I encourage to do so and enjoy the interview process. It's always fun to talk to other developers and learn new things about other people. You are part of a great company, and you are helping to make that company bigger and a fun place to work! Remember, it's all about the people.

Karina Alejandra Villaseñor is an Industrial Relations specialist with more than 2 years of experience as a recruiter. She currently works as IT Recruiter at iTexico. You can contact her through LinkedIn.

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Xamarin Mobile App Development. Training App Developers in Mexico!

C# (C Sharp) is a programming language that has been around for more than a decade and is already the foundation for so many products and software used by every one of us on a daily basis. Microsoft created this simple, yet elegant language as a part of their .NET initiative a while back and it has grown to become immensely popular within the developer community and has taken desktop app development industry by a storm.

However, we live in an era where mobile computing and user experience is king and where consumers have a massive set of alternatives to chose from when it comes to mobile applications.  In a world where the paradigm of desktop apps no longer apply to reality, how can C# and .NET developers leverage their existing knowledge and experience? Meet Xamarin, a way to build native mobile applications using C# and .NET capabilities.

Since the introduction of the modern smartphone and the mobile application ecosystem, developers have created dazzling applications using a wide variety of programming languages.  They are using native ones like Objective C for iOS or Java for Android, or using cross-platform development tools and platforms to create native mobile applications. If there is one thing that C# has not been a major player in until very recently, it is in mobile app development. Enter Xamarin, a cross-platform technology built by the makers or Mono and aimed to create fully native mobile applications using one of the most popular language of all time: C#.

Xamarin basically allows developers take advantage of powerful language features like Linq, Lambda expressions, Async programming, reflection and dependency injection as well as many other great things like:

- Reuse existing C# code from existing applications.

- Use Visual Studio as IDE with its famous extensions like Resharper.

- Native access to the platform libraries (Android, iOS).

- Code sharing between mobile apps.

- Use Xamarin components to share camera, and social networks code between platforms

- Use native libraries with bindings.

Among other things, Xamarin is a great tool to integrate the business logic of all the mobile clients in one common point as well as extend your Microsoft stack to mobile devices using your current capabilities. It also integrates current native efforts for Xamarin projects and many other possibilities for .NET developers using Xamarin. At iTexico, we are still discovering new things that we can use Xamarin for in our every day projects, I recommend check it out!

iTexico has always been looking to become partners with the most innovative leading companies in the technology industry. As a part of those efforts, Xamarin and iTexico have become close partners and worked on a variety of projects in the mobile development area. A key part of that partnership is finding the best ways to make sure that the level of expertise in the Xamarin platform is the best. This is why both iTexico and Xamarin planned a joint effort to train and engage with the developer community in Mexico, Xamarin founder’s home country and the land where iTexico’s Global Delivery Center is located.

On October 24th 2013, we were visited by the Xamarin team of  Matt Larson, Partner Manager at Xamarin and Anuj Bhatia, a Xamarin trainer. They arrived in Guadalajara where they were set up to meet and engage with the talented developer community in Mexico’s western region.

During their 3-day stay, the team at iTexico and our special guests had the opportunity to hold several events such as business lunch and learn sessions, community drink-Up and of course, Xamarin’s first official certification class in Mexico. More than 30 developers attended to a sold-out class where they had the opportunity to discuss about their experience using Xamarin, learn new topics and reinforce their existing knowledge in the platform. At the end, students were given access to the Xamarin Certified Mobile Developer certification exam. Everyone was very excited!

It was a very rewarding experience and the community really appreciated the opportunity to get trained, share their knowledge and talk about all things mobile during those days when C# became a shining light in the new era of mobile development.

If you’re interested in learning more about Xamarin or about our cross-platform mobile development services make sure to give us a shout!

- Business Lunch & Learn

About to start the @XamarinHQ Lunch&learn session in Guadalajara, MX. @iTexico @pradhanabhijeet pic.twitter.com/Enm9rzDAzB

— Guillermo Ortega (@gortegas) October 23, 2013

- Training

Picture for proof @xamarinhq @anooj @iTexico pic.twitter.com/Y2u1obWQEw

— Matthew Larson (@mattylar12) October 24, 2013

- Drink Up

Having burgers & drinks and meeting developers with @xamarinhq, @pradhanabhijeet @mattylar12 @iTexico pic.twitter.com/stvRPWkVOK

— Guillermo Ortega (@gortegas) October 25, 2013

David Sandoval is the Marketing Manager at iTexico, entrepreneur, and UX/UI designer with more than 7 years of experience in web application and mobile app design, usability and product design. He holds a Bachelor in Information Systems and an MBA in Marketing by La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia.

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Developer's Perspective: IBM Worklight for Mobile App Development

As a mobile app developer and interested in new platforms and techniques of development, I will share with you this technology, IBM Worklight to create mobile apps:

Worklight is an open, comprehensive and advanced mobile application platform and framework used to develop HTML5, hybrid and native mobile applications.  Worklight also helps run and manage these software mobile applications.  

IBM Worklight framework is made up of these four main components:

IBM Worklight Studio.IBM Worklight Device Runtime Components.IBM Worklight Server.IBM Worklight Console.

Each one of these components allow us to manage some part of the application:

This is a plugin for Eclipse IDE that allows us to develop the code for the app.

All of these components are the SDK. This will make the code we write to work on the user's real devices.

This is the server that provides the information to the application, based on adapters’ paradigm. It gets the data access to the back-end of the app.

This is the monitor and manager of the app in its different versions and environments, adapters and push notification rules.

Provides the API that allows local JSON data storing.

An adapter is a component that is used to retrieve the data from services in the back-end server. The retrieved data by the adapter is always JSON formatted.

An adapter is composed of:

An XML file describing the back-end server information and the procedures that it performs.A JavaScript (.js) file that contains the implementation of the procedures already declared in the XML file.An XSL file, if the retrieved data from the back-end server is in XML format, the XSL file is used for the XML to JSON conversion.

The adapter can be used to make HTTP requests, execute SQL queries and more.

There are some JavaScript libraries that help with the app development.

JQuery Mobile.Dojo mobile.Sencha.

Also, the Apache Cordova Framework can help when creating mobile applications with Worklight. This framework allows the app to call native device functions from JavaScript, and even lets you create your own Cordova Plugins with Objective-C code.

Ok, let us leave the theory behind for a while…

First, you have to download and install the IDE called Eclipse.  Warning! The Worklight documentation does not demand very specific version of the IDE in every version of the eclipse.  By the time this blog is published, IBM Worklight 6 will be the latest release and it will demand Eclipse Juno v4.2.2 (SR2) or Eclipse Classic v4.2.2. You can download it the latest release here. 

The next step is to download the IBM Worklight Developer Edition Plugin from the Eclipse Marketplace. 

NOTE: You should not forget to install the SDK of each environment in which you want to deploy.

Once everything needed is correctly installed, create a new mobile app project:

Select Hybrid Application and Next:

Now, set the Application Name. If it is needed, add one of the JavaScript libraries listed:

As you can see in the screenshot, the dojo library comes with the IBM Worklight 6 Plugin.  NOTE: We will NOT add any library for this example.

Now, you can see the basic project structure

Adapters: Source code for the adapters.Apps: Source code for the apps.Server: Configuration files, libraries and Java code for the server.Components: Source code for the Shell components.

In the apps?WorklightApp?application-descriptor.xml file is where you can add environments and features to your app.  In this example, we'll add iPhone* and android environments.

*Note: iPhone or iPad, only if you have a Mac.

Select Application “WorklightApp”.Click on Add… Button.Select the environment.Click OK Button.

There are new folders under apps?WorklightApp folder, one by each environment you have added one as a common resource.

In the WorklightApp.html file that’s inside the common folder, add a button after the application UI comment:

Now inside each environment (iPhone & android folders), in the js?WorklightApp.js file, add an event listener for the click event of the button after the Environment initialization comment:

// Environment initialization code goes heredocument.getElementById("helloBtn").addEventListener('click', function(){            alert("from ");}, null);To see the results go to the Project Explorer and select your WorklightApp folder, right-click on it, select Run as option and then Build All and Deploy

Now, in your workspace you can see a new Project (an Android App Project) named WorklightExampleWorklightAppAndroid. This is the result of the deployment for Android, selecting and running it as an Android Application will compile the app and load it into an emulator or a device.

In the case of iPhone, Worklight will also create an Xcode Project for you. To open it, you must go to the iPhone environment folder inside your Worklight Project, right click on it and run it as Xcode Project, and then you can run the app from Xcode IDE.

Adalberto Gonzalez is an experienced Systems Engineer which currently works at iTexico as a Mobile Developer. Adalberto has been specializing in Worklight since early 2013 additional to the regular platforms for development.

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Appcelerator in Mexico: Presence & Mobile Developers Expertise

iTexico is an Austin based nearshore technology company that provides businesses with full lifecycle mobile application services including architecture, experience design, mobile and web development, testing and quality assurance. iTexico complements existing teams with a delivery center in Guadalajara Mexico and on-site with specialized extended teams as a service (eTaaS). Our developers create cross-platform mobile apps using native iOS and Android technology, Appcelerator Titanium and Alloy, Xamarin and IBM Worklight. iTexico’s MobiAppCare specialists are experts at maintaining your mobile app up-to-date.

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