5 important terms for a Junior IT recruiter - these terms you need to know!

Below, we have compiled a list of some of the most important concepts in the field of IT recruitment that every IT recruiter should know. This is elementary knowledge, without it it will be very difficult for you to start your adventure in this fascinating industry. So here we go!

Simply put, the frontend is the user layer, i.e. what is displayed to the user using the system/program/application. For example: reading this entry, you see the article and its content, but on the backend side (server layer, invisible to the user), this article is embedded in a database located on the server. Thus, a frontend developer is a person who creates an interface visible to the user, while a backend developer has the knowledge and experience necessary to work with databases and servers. Popular frontend technologies include: JavaScript, Angular, ReactJS, and backend Java, Python, PHP, C#.

DevOps is a specialist who combines two very important roles from the point of view of the organization - operational (ops) and developer (dev). DevOps is a link between the development team and the team of people acting on the operational side (e.g. administrator, tester). In the past, this role did not exist at all, it was the programmer or administrator who played the role of DevOps, but with the development of new technologies, e.g. cloud services such as Azure, AWS or GCP, more tasks were created for one person and this role had to be separated and a separate specialization should be created. The most important task of DevOps is to coordinate the work between the created code and releasing it into production in the shortest possible time and of the best quality. DevOps doesn't have to be a super programmer and a super administrator in one, but it must be able to program and know how servers work.

Both concepts boil down to testing. Each application, system, program needs to be checked in real operation. Cars leaving the showroom also undergo a number of tests - safety tests, crash tests. In a result the customer receives a satisfactory product without defects. Manual Tester and Automation Tester (some still use the term Automated Tester or QA Automation Engineer or Software Development Engineer in Test) are people who test software. Manual Tester tests applications in a manual way - you click through, for example, a mobile application and report all errors it encounters in the appropriate system (e.g. Jira). One of the application's errors may be, for example, a broken button, crashing (application closes suddenly) or performance problems (slow application). A manual tester works based on a test scenario that he usually creates himself. An automation tester using technologies such as Selenium Webdriver writes a special code that automates and detects application errors. Automated testing is much faster than the manual approach. Manual testing is time consuming and consumes human resources.

An often encountered term is Agile itself, Scrum. Scrum is a project management methodology based on the Agile concept. In Scrum itself, there are three roles: scrum master, i.e. the person who oversees the Scrum process itself, Product Owner, i.e. the person cooperating directly with the end client, and the development team, consisting mainly of strictly technical people, such as programmers, designers, and administrators. Scrum has the advantage that, unlike other project management methodologies (e.g. Waterfall), the program/application is run in the so-called Sprints (e.g. two-week ones) and is handed over to the client in stages, not at the very end as an application already 100% completed. This methodology allows you to maintain quality and allows you to react to changes in the project much earlier. Thanks to it, it is also much easier to predict the scope of work, as well as their sequence.

GIT is a distributed version control system. The system itself is used to manage the history of the source code. To manage the GIT system, you need a GIT repository management software for example, Bitbucket. GIT itself has many advantages, including: speed of operation, the ability to work on the same code by several people, offline work and many others. Other version control systems are e.g. CVS, RCS. However, GIT is the most popular because of its universality. There are also several important concepts associated with the GIT system, including:

– repository – often called by programmers simply repo, it is nothing more than a whole treasure trove of code, this is where the code created by all programmers working on a given project is saved,

– branch – a kind of branch/one version on which a given developer works (programs).

– merge – merge merges code changes from different branches,

– commit – that is, what the programmer creates (code) is sent to the repository.

As you have noticed, the IT world terms are sometimes very complicated, but the most important thing is the ability to understand them. Sometimes difficult things are much easier when a person dealing with programming on a daily basis and can help us. So always ask people about the issues that bother you. Programmers and IT people are very friendly - I have never encountered a situation where, after asking a question, someone pointed out the lack of knowledge. Programmers know that there are few people with their competencies on the market due to the entry barrier itself, and they willingly share their knowledge. Remember that you still have 'uncle' Google and numerous social media at your disposal. Good luck with your IT recruitment!