Hey Techies - It’s Bojan here

These are my first few newsletters so I wanna give you some intro

I’ll be covering 4 topics/sections

1. Jobs - The latest job boards, how to find jobs and jobs I’m hiring for

2. Career Advice - Trends, industries and how to make the most of it

3. Interview Tips - Prepping for them, before, during and after

4. Legal Advice - How to compliantly work with global companies

Legal advice is probably the most boring, but its the most important and most profitable to you - so pay attention Techies

Finally - at the end of my Newsletter is a rating, I call it a Lekker Meter, the more flags, the better the rating - please rate my newsletter and give me feedback so I can make it better for YOU!

Enjoy this week’s edition

JOBS

The go-to job board for Go

I know job boards, heck, I scrape the life out of them so I can find and reach out to companies - But I never knew about this job board and it’s awesome!

https://www.golangprojects.com/

What I like about it

• Focused on Go and Golang only

• Well-defined Job Descriptions, meaning;

  • Many jobs show salary expectations

  • Jobs can easily be filtered for 100% remote roles only

  • Tech stack and team is clearly defined within the job spec

• Company info is easy to find, this is not a job board with just recruitment firms posting jobs on behalf of clients but hiding who the end client is

Top Tip - Open the fully remote roles, find the companies on LinkedIn and if they have 50 or less employees, you can reach out to them directly - smaller companies usually have much more flexible hiring policies

Special Notice - if you are a Senior Full Stack developer - React and Java, i’d be happy to share the job spec with you - just send me your CV - reply to this email that you’d be interested in learning more about the “Berlin Startup”

CAREER ADVICE

Don’t burn the bridges

It’s November 2024 - i’m freezing my…. I’m freezing - and I get a LinkedIn message from someone i’ve interviewed a few months back

Strong Frontend Developer - would be a star hire anywhere, got the skills, got the experience, and got great charisma on an interview.

He asked if I had something in the works - I did, I still do

But… i’m definitely not sending him through

Here’s why

At the start of the year, I was hiring for a React Developer, and found his profile on LinkedIn - we had a great chat, I discussed the interview process, our budget and timelines.

All was clear and agreed

• first interview, great

• second interview, great

• take home assignment… crickets

Doesn’t attempt it, doesn’t communicate to myself or the client that they are stopping the interview process

So much so, that I even called to ask him to email the client just to at least give feedback and apologize for not communicating that they are not interested in a more timely manner

Now, months later, he does want a job, and I can place him

But he burned his bridge, he messed up, on something as simple as just a thank you message with a rejection of proceeding

It’s completely unprofessional - and he forever loses out on working with us or my clients

Special Notice - if you are a Senior Full Stack developer - React and Java, i’d be happy to share the job spec with you - just send me your CV - reply to this email that you’d be interested in learning more about the “Berlin Startup”

INTERVIEW TIPS

Failing to prepare is preparing to fail

It’s so cliché this but its the basics and you will feel so much more comfortable in the interview if you just bed this down

Before the call

• Spy - find out who is interviewing you, check out their socials, specifically LinkedIn, and see if there’s any talking points you can raise with them

• Make sure you’re in a quiet space - your car does not count

• Make sure you’re in a well-set space - or put a background image

• Make sure you have a fully charged laptop, with a clean camera and wifi - with phone as backup data incase the wifi goes down or is not stable

During the call

• Dress well - i’ve had a guy wearing a wrobe before, needless to say he did not get the job and i’ve never spoken with him since…

• Speak clearly and have a good story about yourself, your career, your hobbies - I made a youtube video giving advice on this, its more for senior devs, but same principles apply for less experienced professionals

• Be honest - eg: If you don’t know the answer, just say so, it’s no big deal

After the call

• Next Steps - always try to find out next steps during the interview, if there is hesitation from their side, there probably won’t be a next step

• Email - send an email thanking each one personally, don’t email all in one email, and try to include a takeaway from the interview

• Ask for feedback - whether you make it through or not, asking for feedback when interviews are done is great - maybe your code is great, but your personality doesn’t match, maybe you’re not experienced enough, be humble and learn from this experience

LEGAL TIPS

The biggest blocker for SA devs and International Companies

South Africans don’t know how to work for international companies legally International companies don’t know how to work with South Africans legally

There are 3 simple ways to solve this and i’ll be talking in more detail in each newsletter, giving you legal and compliance tips, tax and accounting advice as well as business and contractual agreements you can use when speaking with international companies

So this section might be the most boring - but it’s also the most valuable

For now, back to those 3 easy ways

1. An Employee of Record software, such as Deel.com

2. A contractual agreement between the Company and the Legal Individual (this is you)

3. A contractual agreement between the international company and the registered company of the individual (this is the SA company you must register)

Again i’ll be speaking more about all this in this weekly newsletter

THAT’S A WRAP

Before you go: Here’s 3 ways I can help you

1. LinkedIn - I’m always hiring - but only 2 to 4 people a month - connect with me on and send me your CV - currently, I only hire people with 7 or more years of experience - if you have less, but are EXCEPTIONAL, i’ll make exceptions

2. Youtube - i’m always making content to help you out, subscribe and binge

3. Free Career Advice - i’m going to be giving away CV feedback for early subscribers for free, I usually charge $100 for a resume roast - i’ll make a recording and send you feedback - just reply back to this email with your CV - its totally free for first 15 people