To clarify this part: "figure out things by searching and reading the documents the traditional way"

It is fine to use AI to figure out what the code actually does. Just read through the whole explanation and make sure you actually understand. Still even with AI in place it is always a good Idea to take a look at their documents. They are usually more up-to-date compared to AI.

I’ll be sharing this tonight

What do Software Developer #Interviews look like?

Overall, there are two major parts to each developer job interview: Soft Skill Assessment and Technical Skill Assessment.

I'd say both are equally important, but right now let's focus on technical interviews because that's what stresses everyone out.

In terms of technical skills, outside FAANG, most interviews aren’t heavy LeetCode-style puzzles.

What you’ll usually see is a combination of:
- Practical coding (build a small feature, fix a bug, write a function, work with an API, etc.)
- System design (at a high level: architecture, databases, services, scaling, tradeoffs)
- Take-home or live coding exercise
- Some basic DSA (arrays, maps, strings, maybe trees), not hardcore graph DP stuff

So I’d focus on:
- Fundamentals
- Fundamentals
- Fundamentals
- Real-world scenarios
- Writing clean, readable code under time pressure
- Understanding how the technologies you work with actually work
- Working with data, APIs, databases, or other core parts of your stack
- Explaining your design choices and tradeoffs
- Light LeetCode (easy/medium) just to stay sharp

You don’t need to grind 300 problems.

Do enough to be comfortable coding live, and spend more time on real-world scenarios related to the role you’re applying for.

Let me know if you found any part of this unclear 🚶🏻‍♂️

@itsnightshift

A useful component library I came across specifically for implementing AI features:

https://elements.ai-sdk.dev

@itsnightshift

It's been the busiest week of this year so far, (attending to some personal matters)


I'll chack all the messages by Saturday or Sunday 😬

Things are settling down 🙂‍↔️ How about some #Resume talk soon?

Dev #Resume Best Practices

I see sooooo many horrible dev resumes.
So I'm writing this hoping to see more solid ones from now on, and more importantly, more of you getting the interviews you deserve.

Some of the best practices to follow when writing your resume:

1. Keep it to one page
If you're a junior or mid-level developer with less than ~5 years of experience, your resume really shouldn't be more than one page.

If it is, you're probably either filling it with buzzwords hoping it'll make you look more experienced than you are, or you're simply not using the space properly.

Either way, you're stealing the recruiter's attention from what actually matters.

2. Keep the design simple
Please don't make your resume two columns just because you think it looks more "modern."

And don't throw in random graphics, skill bars, icons, progress circles, or other design elements just to stand out.

Keep it simple and professional.

Use a good, consistent font. You don't need a photo either. Apart from taking up valuable space, a photo can introduce unnecessary bias.

Your goal isn't to impress someone with your graphic design skills.

Your goal is to make it ridiculously easy for them to understand who you are, what you've built, and what you're good at.

3. Follow a clear structure
You don't need 17 different sections. Keep things organized, but don't over-engineer the resume either.

A simple structure works really well:

Name + Title + Contact
Put your name and title at the top, along with your relevant contact links, video intro (if you have one), and portfolio.

Summary
3–4 lines max. And please, don't start with:
"I'm a passionate, self-taught developer who loves solving problems..."

Everyone says this. Instead, show your passion by talking about the problems you've actually tackled in your projects or previous experience.

Skills
Don't cram this section with every technology you've ever touched. You don't need:
HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Git, GitHub, VS Code...

Focus on technologies that actually communicate something useful. For example:
Next.js (already tells me you know React), TypeScript, Tailwind, React Query (Says you know how to manage server state), Redux, Node.js, Express, Drizzle, Redis, etc.

And make the important technologies easy to spot.

This section matters because it's often one of the first things a recruiter scans when deciding whether the rest of your resume is worth reading.

Experience
If you have experience, keep it concise. Use bullet points, but don't turn every bullet into a generic list of things you were assigned to do.

For example, instead of:

Used Redis to create a caching layer for our backend.

Try to lead with the impact:

Improved inventory response times from ~600ms to ~100ms by implementing Redis-based caching strategies.

Same technology. Very different story.

Talk about what changed because of the work you did, whenever you can.

If you don't have professional experience yet, replace this section with your projects.

But make sure those projects are actually strong. Ideally, build things that feel close to production-level rather than another basic todo app.

4. Your projects section
I've already talked about this in detail before, so I'm not going to repeat everything here.

Check it out here: https://t.me/itsnightshift/26

5. Put your resume online
Have your resume available through a link.

With an online resume, you can also keep updating it without having to send everyone a new file. Anyone who has the link automatically sees the latest version.

Small thing, but it makes the whole process much easier.


I'll attach my own resume here in case you are looking for a sample: https://mohamadh.xyz/resume.pdf



@itsnightshift

[UPDATE] Added AI Integration Interview Questions

https://github.com/itsmohamadh/fullstack-interview-prep

@itsnightshift

When you need advice from someone, do not make them wait through a conversation just to discover what you wanted to ask.

Do not send:
“Hi.”

Then wait.

Then:
“How are you?”

Then wait.

Then:
“Can I ask you something?”

And only after all that, finally ask the question.

Put your message together from the beginning. Greet them, explain what you need, and ask your question clearly.

This is easier for you, easier for them, and you will receive an answer much sooner.

And when you have many questions, be selective. Do not send ten questions one after another simply because the person answered the first.

Respecting another person’s time is also a form of consideration.

Keep it clear. Keep it concise. And get to the point.

@itsnightshift

Success in life (or in getting what you want ) doesn’t just require technical skills.

In fact, more than that, it requires the right mindsets and personality traits.

There are certain traits that literally stop you from achieving what you want. And by fixing each one of those, your actions start to change, and you get closer to achieving your goals.

If you’ve been working hard towards a goal for so long and still haven’t been able to get any closer to achieving it, I would bet that, in many ways, you are still the exact same person you used to be.

Look at the people who are exactly where you want to be.

How are they different?
How are their beliefs different?
How are their actions different?
Where do those actions stem from?
What beliefs or thoughts push them to take those actions?

You need to build those beliefs to the point where you can actually act on them. And the right actions drive the right results.

Success stems from making the right decisions over and over again, while reducing the mistakes along the way.

If you’ve been trying for sooo long to achieve a goal and you still haven’t achieved it, this is a point worth looking into.

@itsnightshift

The Evolution of a Jen Z Kid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-X-6UOTQjZo


How the dev market has changed

Why people feel like it sucks!

How to still stand out and make it into the market.

The easiest video I've seen to explain the concept of system design.

One reason why junior devs struggle to learn advanced concepts is because they don't understand how those concepts are going to be helpful in a real application.

This video explains how applications actually work and how we scale them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaXHfuHRWwg

This takes less than an hour to read.

With a story it teaches how to assess the situation all the time and when to know it is time for a change.

How to put our fears aside and adapt to the new situation. Something the dev community really needs these days.

🟡 Reminder to self: Write about the best way to self study English and introduce resources.

Learning English

First of all, if you don't have any experience with a proper English class, I don't recommend starting with self-learning English.

The reason is that I see many people start by themselves and then struggle to see any improvement in their English because they haven't been doing it the right way. Or even worse, I see them learn the wrong thing (wrong Pronunciation or Grammar or ...) which would be very difficult to unlearn once it sticks.

It would be helpful to have a decent teacher with you when you're first starting.

For when you decide to go with self-learning methods I still recommend you at least use some books at your own level so you always know what you should study next and don't waste time wondering around.


Until you are B2 You need to split your focus roughly like this:
70% → Grammar
30% → Vocabulary

A huge mistake I see is people focusing almost entirely on vocabulary, sentences, and their meanings.

Learning English is like learning to do puzzles.

Grammar is the rules that teach you how to put the right words beside each other to create the sentence you want.

When you skip grammar, you end up with a pile of puzzle pieces that you have no idea how to make stick together and become useful. And so, they become almost useless.

Once you're at B2 and you already know advanced grammar, you can shift your focus:
30% → Grammar
70% → Advanced vocabulary, phrases, etc.

What I explained here is just the essence of it. There is so much more that you need to be careful about.

You need to make sure you're working enough on all 4 skills and not overlooking any of them.
You also need to pay attention to:
→ Pronunciation
→ Using the right, natural phrasal verbs
→ Natural sentence structures
→ And so much more.

If you see yourself at a position to start self-learning I really recommend these series of books:

- English [Grammar | Phrasal Verbs | Vocabulary] In Use [Beginner | Intermediate | Advance]

Personally these were the only books I used (Didn't need anything else really)

If you are looking for a teacher with excellent teaching style I really recommend armanienglish.com courses taught by Iman Mafi my own beloved teacher.

Personally, I attended all of their general courses + their IELTS course, and they have the best teaching style and methods I've ever experienced.

Growing up I really hated English because I thought I just didn't have the talent. But their courses made me realize that I just weren't taught the right way as it became so easy and literally enjoyable with them.

They have interactive courses for both general and advanced English, and you can check out their course demos on their website and see if it is going to work for you before you make the purchase.

Another good thing is that you can schedule the courses at your own convenient time.

Comment here if you had any questions on any of this.

@itsnightshift

Trying to make it work for someone else if not me.

Some founder and dev communities to check out:

Slack:
- Rands Leadership ✨
- Startup Berlin
- The Incubator
- Founders Today
- Remote Developer Community
- Indie Hackers ✨
- X Software Engineer List
- X SaaS Founder List
- Telegram Dev Chat Group

Stared my favorite ones

@itsnightshift

From programming with punch cards to coding with AI today.

Software development has changed dramatically over the years.

The tools, languages, and the way we work have all completely evolved.

And just like we have throughout all these years, developers continue to adapt to change, grow with it, and keep building toward a better and more comfortable world.

Happy Software Developer Day to all of you developers! ✨

@itsnightshift

#Update

At this point, I don't really feel like I need to learn more stuff or more tools as a software engineer. I know enough to figure out almost anything and solve almost any problem when I face it.

What I really think would be worth the investment for me is learning how to get clients and market my business. I'd say I'm even kind of late to this. But now is better than never.

All I have right now are some vague ideas about how to do this that I got from other people's experiences. I guess I just have to execute and see what could actually work.

@itsnightshift