Industry Experience Gives Shrewd Developer the Edge

Developers with vertical industry experience have an edge in landing related jobs.Are you looking for the right type of developer for your company? Plenty of folks out there have excellent coding chops and experience. How can you tell the difference between them to figure out who would be the best for your company? Look for more than just coding ability.

Finding Context in Your Coding

Have you had an experience where you hired a developer who you thought was going to work out great but didn’t? What went wrong? They had the right background, schooling and plenty of experience, yet none of their code fit. What sounded like great ideas never seemed to deliver the results you needed. Perhaps, they lacked context.

Context allows a software developer to ask the right questions so that they can provide the right solutions. If a developer lacks a working knowledge of HIPAA privacy laws, can you be sure patient health information will be kept secure? Will your software adequately restrict access to this personally identifiable information if your developers don’t understand the rules?

While this affects healthcare organizations, don’t assume HIPAA doesn’t affect every other business. Does your software give users access to HR data sources, where health insurance data will be stored? Just like every other part of HR, this information is private.

For HIPAA, the penalties for exposing this personal data will be severe. Feinstein Institute for Medical Research found out how severe when the HHS Office for Civil Rights levied sanctions that included a $3.9 million fine after the 2012 theft of an unencrypted laptop from an employee’s car four years ago. The organization failed to adequately explain why the laptop and data weren’t encrypted and they had other security issues.

Can you be sure your software allows administrators to restrict access to only the authorized end users? Developers need to understand this priority of the businesses that use your software.

A developer with experience in your business or industry better understands the right questions to ask in software requirements meetings. When potential customers submit their own requirements, this developer will understand why those are important. This knowledge positions them to anticipate the needs of the business. The smaller the niche your application serves, the more important it is to find someone that has experience in that industry.

John Shiple, head of FreelanceCTO, said in a Tech Target article that the banking industry wants developers experienced with security and who understand the compliance mandate governing the payment card industry. That experience pays – developers who bring it to the job typically earn salaries 10% to 20% higher.

What To Do When Developers Lack Industry Experience

The scarcity of qualified developers could mean that you can’t find someone who has experience in your particular sector. There’s still hope. While not necessarily as valuable as work experience, take a look at job candidates’ college transcripts for related classes they might have taken. Even a cursory knowledge of your business might make one prospective developer stand out among the others.

Experience in a similar business also can be helpful. While not knowing the specifics of what you do, they may be able to quickly gain knowledge in your business area. They may also be able to relate that past experience to gain insight into the specifics of your business as well. A developer who previously worked on billing applications may be just the person you need to handle the coding for that function in your software.

Experience Isn’t Everything

Developers can overcome a lack of experience in a particular industry when they have other proven qualities. If they show the right attitude – and passion for the job – they can prove to a hiring manager that they are right for the job. It’s best if they explain that not only are they willing to master new skills, but that they’ve been doing it for your entire career.

Izenda’s Experience Helps Your Company with BI

Experience with your specific business remains important, as is experience in the area that your project is going to be developed. That’s why you should trust Izenda with your business intelligence solutions.

Izenda has the experience that you need with business intelligence and analytics. Your potential BI vendors should be good developers, but they should also have the experience that counts. Many vendors claim to be able to tackle any project. With the importance that your business is going to attach to their BI solutions, can you afford the risk?

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