Dino Esposito: “Here, developers are more in demand, and their work is paid higher”

    September 13th, we held the fourth meeting of uDev for developers, the speaker of which was Dino Esposito , a .NET guru and expert in the development of mobile and web applications. Read how our programmers live in Italy and whether our developers live up to Dino’s expectations, read in our interview.



    What did you know about the level of developers and the state of the market in Ukraine before you came to our country?

    I was aware that a significant part of Ukrainian developers are engaged in outsourcing. And although the cost of services is an important factor for customers, a serious company in the search for an outsourcer will not seek to save at all costs. Quality of work also plays an important role. In fact, outsourcing takes root well where they can provide high quality at a lower price. However, I knew little about the education of programmers in Ukraine and the quality of their work. But I always had great respect for developers from Eastern Europe, because I know some of them.

    Here, programmers are considered one of the highest paid and sought-after specialists. Is it the same in Italy?

    I think that in Ukraine developers are more in demand, and their work is paid higher (given the local price level and cost of living). Few companies are seriously developing in Italy. We lack corporate development. Large companies, such as banks, pay a lot of money to consulting companies, which, in turn, hire programmers at a low price to earn more and conduct a more aggressive pricing policy with the end user. The quality of the product leaves much to be desired, but it does not seem to bother anyone. Developers are in great demand in small companies that are engaged in development, but there are very few such companies and they are unlikely to have a chance to overcome the threshold of 10-20 employees.



    Work in a large company or create your own project - what do you think, what should a developer go on?

    It all depends on the internal policies of a large company. If she is engaged in internal development and you are satisfied with this industry, then this is the optimal situation (as far as my professional worldview suggests). If you don’t like the industry, work can be a nightmare. Working on your own projects is quite risky: you can get a good result, or you can just lose a lot of time. I would advise you to work in a company (it’s better to work in a large one) and at the same time do your own work.

    How did you become a developer? What path does a specialist take in your country to become a professional?

    My story is a little unusual, because I was lucky to be at the right time in the right place and, most importantly, with the right attitude and skills. Nevertheless, I saw how many achieved remarkable results due to the fact that they worked harder, tried harder to understand their field of activity, and also knew how to explain in an accessible way.



    What makes a developer a professional?

    Someone once said that a professional is a person who has already made all possible mistakes. In other words, professionalism comes with experience and is supported by theoretical knowledge.

    What are some books or resources you find useful to developers?

    It is difficult to find a universal answer. First of all, make sure that you have a basic understanding of the area in which you work, be it cloud computing, databases, web or specific technologies. If you are a beginner, start working on something, then pause and study this topic more deeply. In addition, few books will help you better than Stack Overflow — unless they can take you to a whole new level of understanding of things.

    In the IT field, much is changing instantly. Is it worth chasing trends and new technologies or do you need to use proven approaches?

    If your methods work, continue to use them. Sooner or later, you still have to change something, and you will understand when this time comes. Someone will say that this is an outdated view of things. But, when things change quickly, it’s best to stay practical.

    What are your impressions of meeting uDev?

    It was great: a lot of interesting people, a lot of enthusiasm. Such events should be longer and more frequent so that developers have more opportunities to share their experiences. But for this it’s not enough just to be a good specialist - you also need to be able to work with the public.



    Any interesting or non-standard questions from the audience?

    Yes, there were several questions that prompted me to think that these guys are doing very difficult things. At the same time, if they were interested in the topic of the speech, then it means that, like any professional, it is not enough just to deepen their knowledge in a certain field - they need to be expanded. I would say that expanding the sphere of competence is more important, because if necessary, you can always deepen your knowledge, and it takes years to expand your horizons.

    Did the level of developers meet your expectations?

    My performance was designed for a certain level of listeners. And I am sure that everyone perfectly understood the main ideas, most likely precisely because they are smart and receptive to the new (which allows expanding their horizons), and not because they have solid technical knowledge. Remember my example about the breadth and depth of knowledge.

    You had several days to walk in Kharkov, you even managed to go on excursions. Tell us about your impressions of your trip to Ukraine?

    Everything here seemed to me large and large. I saw a lot of wide areas, as well as roads that take up as much space as the largest tracks in Italy. But a big surprise for me was the fact that one of my relatives is from Kharkov region, and her parents teach at a local university. After talking with her, I got an idea about this university and how important higher education is considered here. That is what inspired me to use the story of the Karazin University to explain the concept of scalability during my speech.

    The video recording of Dino Esposito's speech on uDev with the report “Life as a Service: Scalability and other Aspects” is available here . Next uDev meeting will be held on October 25 in Kharkov, speaker - Director at R7K Research & Conveyance Michael Fezers.

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