Stories by Alin Climente on Medium

A list of nice websites for design inspiration

Alin Climente — Sun, 05 Jan 2025 15:26:03 GMT

They follow more or less this website structure:

https://www.sortlist.com

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/devops/pipelines/?msockid=21a1ee550ec261b004d4fb7e0f036033

You are Wasting Money on Background Checks

Alin Climente — Fri, 18 Oct 2024 15:11:05 GMT

Hiring is risky. There is no silver bullet on getting this perfectly. A candidate may appear great at the first screening interview and at the second technical interview. Because of the time limitations you can’t go through all candidate’s knowledge. How can you be sure that what the candidate wrote in their CV is true in the first place? Is the candidate right for a long-term collaboration? Will the candidate be an asset to the company? So many questions, so many uncertainties — and here is where background check companies come in.

Background check companies will take this heavy burden from you and validate the candidate’s claims in his CV.

Here is what background check companies will do for you:

Check if candidate name is the same as in his CV by checking his ID — For an employee you can do that yourself with the help of the HR department. For a contractor you can check his business name/VAT online on government public data. The candidate can’t give false information here, because he needs to be paid on his bank account, and the bank already performed that validation for you.
Check if candidate education is the same as in his CV by checking his University Diploma — Ask for diploma, make a copy and add it to the dossier. Most people don’t even work in the same domain of their studies, how that information is valuable, I don’t know. The education system is so outdated, that a weekend on YouTube, learning something new is more valuable. Of course, in the case of doctors, real engineers (not “software engineers”: construction, mechanical, electrical, etc.), having a diploma is something that’s mandatory, because they need to sign documents issued by governments.
Check work experience (employee) or projects (contractor) — Background check companies here ask for contracts. Would you like that person to give your contract to another company? Even though you stated in the contract that those documents are confidential, and they should not be shared? Background check companies also ask for phone numbers of previous managers. Who keeps in touch for YEARS with their managers? That’s absurd! Background check companies will get phone numbers of candidate’s friends. You already did the technical interview, that should give you more than enough information. Some people get hired at companies and do more than their job title requires. In the case of a contractor if he is not as expected you can end the collaboration at any time. In Europe you can fire the employee at any time within 3 months (after that it gets complicated, but not impossible). In US you can fire the employee at any time (“at will employment”). In the case of contractors, you can end the collaboration at any time. Where is the risk? $1–2k loss? The same amount you spend on the background check?
Check for candidate’s criminal record — The background check company just takes the document provided by the employee/contractor which he took from the authorities. You can do that as well. Here is a dilemma: What if he has a criminal record? He can’t get a job anymore? He must be a criminal for his whole life? Is that ethical?

Background check companies can’t validate the candidate more than you can. They just feed on the companies’ fear. Work on having a humanly working environment and employee turnover rate will drop significantly.

Here is a spin: Offer a hire bonus instead of paying for background checks.

Automatizări procese de business

Alin Climente — Tue, 10 Sep 2024 11:30:50 GMT

Importanța Automatizării

Automatizarea este esențială în lumea modernă a afacerilor. Aceasta ajută la salvarea timpului, reducerea erorilor și creșterea veniturilor. Prin automatizare, procesele repetitive și consumatoare de timp sunt gestionate eficient, permițând angajaților să se concentreze pe sarcini mai importante și mai creative.

Cum Știi că un Proces Poate Fi Automatizat

Un proces poate fi automatizat dacă:

Este repetitiv: Aceleași sarcini sunt efectuate în mod repetat.
Se desfășoară pe o perioadă mai mare de timp: Procesele care durează mult timp pot fi optimizate prin automatizare.
Se simte robotic: Dacă sarcinile sunt mecanice și nu necesită gândire creativă, acestea sunt ideale pentru automatizare.

Tool-urile Necesare pentru a Începe Automatizarea

Pentru a începe automatizarea, ai nevoie de unul din următoarele tool-uri:

Excel VBA și Tampermonkey: Excel VBA este util pentru automatizarea sarcinilor în Excel, iar Tampermonkey este un script manager pentru automatizarea browserului.
Python: Un limbaj de programare versatil, ideal pentru automatizarea diverselor procese.
Platforme RPA (Robotic Process Automation): Aceste platforme, precum UiPath sau Automation Anywhere, sunt specializate în automatizarea proceselor de afaceri.
Orice alt limbaj de programare popular: Limbaje precum JavaScript, Java sau C# pot fi folosite pentru a crea scripturi de automatizare.

Cum Automatizez Eu Procesele de Business

Eu folosesc Python și JavaScript pentru a automatiza procesele de business. Python este excelent pentru sarcini complexe de date și automatizare de backend, în timp ce JavaScript este ideal pentru automatizarea interfețelor web.

Hai sa vorbim de automatizarea afacerii tale: softgata.com

The Unfair Advantage Small Companies Have…

Alin Climente — Mon, 09 Sep 2024 13:33:34 GMT

TL;DR — They move fast. They know each other’s work progress. They survive by being excellent.

The more people you throw into a team, the slower it becomes. Small teams for each project work very well. In big teams, keeping everyone in sync is hard.

I remember when I went to my job at a corporation with a huge open space. The people I talked to were the ones near my office, but I had no idea what the names of the people on the other half of the open space were.

A big company needs huge amounts of money to operate (salaries, offices, auxiliary personnel, etc.).

If a big company has a contract with another big company, they will follow the given processes letter by letter with ZERO INNOVATION. They fear automating some processes because that would mean getting less work, thus less money.

I got lucky to be in a big company and get in touch with some managers who saw potential in automating business processes, and we got some cool stuff up and running. But I encountered A LOT OF RESISTANCE from other coworkers and managers (it was not easy). People don’t know how much things can be automated, or they fear their job will be replaced.

In a small company, this is not the case. In order to survive, a small company needs to do the same thing better with a much smaller team. Innovation needs to happen in order to keep the contract ongoing.

What big companies don’t realize is that the contract will be renegotiated at some point, and if they don’t come up with a better price than other competing companies, they will lose the contract. That’s exactly what happened to the big company I worked for — they didn’t innovate for 10 years, and the contract was moved to India to reduce costs, leaving 300+ people looking for work.

Automation needs to happen in each company. A separate department responsible for automation needs to be created (or outsourced) in order to improve day-to-day activities. Of course, not all business processes can be automated, and people working on those business processes may have no idea that a part of their work can be automated fairly easily (or they know but are afraid to be replaced).

Big companies don’t automate to survive; small companies automate to survive.

I can help companies automate business processes. Consultations are free and open!

A shared drive on your local company network unlocks this opportunity…

Alin Climente — Mon, 09 Sep 2024 12:21:46 GMT

TL;DR — You can deploy custom web apps on your company’s local network without paying for a cloud subscription.

A long time ago, I had to create a custom task management web application (like Jira or Trello) with some very specific local data handling requirements. The issue arose when I needed to deploy this web app. Getting a budget for deploying this application proved to be nearly impossible (it was a B2B consultancy company with rigid procedures). So, I needed to come up with a free solution to host this app safely.

This app was built in Python, so I used PyInstaller to bundle the app as a single executable that can run on any Windows OS. Once that was done, I configured the SQLite3 database on a shared drive which everyone could access. The next step was to let the users copy the executable from the shared drive. Once that was done, everyone could start the executable and use the app as if it was deployed in the cloud.

If the company had control over the network, the solution could have been deployed on the company’s server, but the network in this case was the main client Citrix environment.

There are a lot of open-source tools that can be deployed for free in a local company network. Of course, deploying on the cloud has its benefits, but also its costs.

One annoying thing is that the generated executable, when copied to another machine than the one used to build the exe, will trigger warnings from Windows/antiviruses when trying to run it. Don’t worry, it’s safe. Each desktop application needs a certificate from an authorized company, which costs money, of course. You can avoid this by either ignoring the messages and adding the executable to the exclusion list in the antivirus or by installing Python and just running the source code via a bash file.

There are a ton of very niche apps that can be built and used in a company using this method. Ideally, the company would have Python and VSCode installed on every machine, thus allowing employees to automate their tasks.

If you have business processes that you think (or are unsure if) they can be automated with a custom software solution, feel free to reach out to me.

How I try to find ideas for new apps to build

Alin Climente — Wed, 29 May 2024 11:09:38 GMT

Building an app that people want to buy is increasingly hard as time goes by. There are already a ton of apps/web apps/websites which fulfil the needs of any customer. For example - think of an idea for an app, then do some research and see if it’s already implemented. What you can do is to come with a better, faster, cheaper alternative to stand out of the crowd.

Unless you solve your own problems by building an app, building without validating the idea may result in disappointment.

First, we need to find a need that is not satisfied. I’ll take as an example Shopify marketplace, but this applies to all app ideas.

I’ll start by placing myself in the shoes of the user that has a Shopify store and try to find what problems he may encounter while doing his business.

Search for communities/review websites (G2, Capterra, etc.) for the most common problems and try to figure out a solution;
Search “Pros and Cons of Shopify” (or any other marketplace/app) — based on the cons try to fill the gap by creating an app that solves those Cons;
Search in the google search bar for “does Shopify have a way to do X” or “how to do X in Shopify” or “is there an app for X” and try to see if there are apps for the suggested “X” by google (you can use these queries on Q &A related forums as well);
Get in touch with some store owners and ask them if they would pre-buy your service (this is the legit validation);
Estimate how many users have this problem (google keyword tool, google trends), the more the better. Example: If you sell this app for 9$ per month — how many users do you need in order to consider start building the app.

There is a lot of research involved when it comes to finding a good idea for an app that users would pay.

If you have lots of cash just build a landing page with a waiting list and pay for ads in any web space you think the potential user may be (easier, but expensive).

Good luck!

ReactJs UI libraries list

Alin Climente — Sun, 14 Apr 2024 12:36:55 GMT

ReactJs UI libraries List

Here are some React UI libraries you can use for your next project:

https://mantine.dev/
https://www.startingpointui.com/
https://v2.grommet.io/components
https://react-bootstrap.github.io/
https://primereact.org/
https://mui.com/
https://v2.chakra-ui.com/
https://ant.design/
https://nextui.org/
https://react.semantic-ui.com/
https://evergreen.segment.com/
https://tailwindui.com/
https://ui.shadcn.com/
https://daisyui.com/
https://flyonui.com/
https://www.tremor.so/
https://www.radix-ui.com/
https://flowbite-react.com/
https://www.penguinui.com/ (copy paste tailwind components like shadcn)
https://www.hyperui.dev/
https://preline.co/
https://tailgrids.com/
https://devdojo.com/pines (alpine, but you can convert components to React)
https://sailboatui.com/
https://park-ui.com/
https://ui.aceternity.com/
https://tailus.io/blocks
https://github.com/HextaStudio/HextaUI / https://hextaui.com/
https://originui.com/
…

Make some cash by building apps for these Marketplaces.

Alin Climente — Fri, 12 Apr 2024 12:39:16 GMT

Business is hard, but somehow there are a lot of them. As a solo developer creating a product from scratch and selling it will take an enormous amount of time. A more approachable angle is to create an application for an existing well established SAAS company which has a marketplace on which you can easily list your application.

When developing a new web application starting with a problem is mandatory. First identify a problem then build a solution. Knowing the domain is key in building a product people want to pay for. In short: gather people complains about the software they are using and create a fix for that.

Here is a list of marketplaces on which as a web developer you can try:

You can continue the list by looking at software listed in https://www.g2.com/ (software review website), or by looking for popular software and google “software name marketplace” or “software name integrations”.

Good luck!

Website templates marketplace list

Alin Climente — Fri, 12 Apr 2024 08:50:14 GMT

Here is list of website templates collected from the internet. Some have free templates you can use.

De ce s-ar putea sa ai nevoie de un website cu programari online incluse

Alin Climente — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 12:26:04 GMT

Photo by Sergey Zolkin on Unsplash

Clientii ne pot gasi afacerea in urmatoarele moduri:

Avem locatia intr-o zona foarte circulata si atunci cand o persoana are nevoie de exemplu sa-si faca o pereche de ochelari vine in locatia cea mai familiara acestuia.
Prin recomandari — daca oferim servicii foarte bune o persoana care a fost la noi ne poate recomanda altor persoane atunci cand se iveste ocazia.
Publicitate stradala — anunturi pe diverse panouri publicitare in zonele cele mai circulate (intersectii, food court, statii de transport public etc.)
Publicitate online — putem plati sa aparem in topul cautarilor la Google atunci cand un utilizator cauta cuvinte cheie relevante pentru serviciile pe care le oferim. Mai sunt de asemeni si reclame pe Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok si alte platforme cu foarte multi utilizatori.
Contact direct clienti — prin diverse canale de comunicare: facebook, email, telefon etc.

In general, o persoana alege serviciile unei afaceri daca are o oarecare incredere in cum se prezinta fie fizic fie online.

Daca afacerea merge foarte bine si clientii vin constant, ba mai mult revin la aceeasi afacere ori de cate ori au nevoie — faci ceva foarte bine si nu trebuie sa mai citesti in continuare. Scrie un articol sa invatam mai multi cum putem sa facem si noi la fel.

In schimb, daca crezi ca este loc de mai bine un website cu programari online pentru afacerea ta nu are decat sa-ti faca bine.

Daca ai un website potentialii clienti pot vedea clar toate detaliile serviciilor tale + daca pe website se pot face programari online poti prelua clienti si in afara orelor de program — poti pune linistit telefonul pe silent si poti verifica programarile facute intr-un slot de timp dedicat.

Daca alegi sa faci o campanie de publicitate fie online fie fizic ai nevoie de un website unde potentialii clienti sa gaseasca mai multe detalii.

Sunt multe variante prin care iti poti crea un website pentru afacerea ta: wix, squarespace, site123, wordpress — toate acestea iti ofera doar websitul, partea de programari online trebuie sa o integrezi din alta parte.

O varianta care este foarte usor de folosit si mai avantajoasa la pret este sa folosesti progsite.ro — iti ofera un website de prezentare cu programari online incluse (ai 30 de zile GRATIS).

Chiar recomand sa-ti faci un website pe wix sa integrezi un plugin extern de programari online si apoi sa incerci progsite.ro sa vezi diferenta.

Orice ati alege intr-un final va urez succes!