Articles

Our Writing

At Unabridged Software, our focus is on delivering solid value to the companies we partner with. We're a group of diverse, talented engineers. We value steady progress over "crushing it" and have a thoughtful approach to software development, hiring, and culture. Read on.

Small Talk, Big Results

Developers at Unabridged talk to each other a lot throughout the workday, and not just about work. While some people may think this off-topic, casual conversation is a detriment to productivity, this kind of communication fosters strong relationships that pays off through better teamwork.

Cassey Lottman

How We Interview Developers For Technical Skill

Instead of brain-teasers and algorithm-heavy questions, we use a take-home project to evaluate each candidate's technical skills against the responsibilities of the role. A good project enables hiring managers to assess each candidate's ability to understand business requirements, write strong code, make sound technical choices, respond to feedback, and communicate with clients and peers.

Andrew Ek

Doing Our Part in a Pandemic: Why We Built PPP Calculator

Laws are complicated and hard to understand and we want to do our part to help out the millions of small businesses in America affected by the coronavirus pandemic. We've released a project we’ve been working on called Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Calculator. You can use it to estimate how much of your PPP loan will be forgivable by the federal government come June 30th.

Drew Ulmer

Does Your Next Software Engineer Need a Degree?

There are more ways to learn software development than ever before. Languages and libraries place new emphasis on documentation. Resources on the internet abound. And coding "boot camps" pop up around the world. As a result, there are now many employable developers who do not have computer science degrees. Should you consider hiring them?

Andrew Ek

What Junior Developers Can Teach the Seniors

The conventional model of teaching suggests a kind of top-down flow of knowledge where the experienced teach, and the inexperienced learn. Translating that to business, we'd expect to see senior developers giving information to the more junior developers. However, the reality at Unabridged is more exciting and nuanced, one where developers at every level engage in meaningful teaching and learning.

Andrew Ek

Stop Imitating Google: A Better Process To Hire Software Engineers

Your company isn’t a venture-backed tech unicorn in Silicon Valley, so why model your hiring process after theirs? Learn our process for helping companies hire top talent through better interviews.

Drew Ulmer

The Business Skills Every Developer Needs

So you’re a full-stack developer with ninja skills? That’s nice. How is your business acumen? Experience has taught us that a few softer skills are essential for any developer to deliver successful projects.

Andrew Ek

Debug the Way You Hire Software Engineers

Many people model their interview process after high-profile tech giants, but in reality, your interview process should be as unique as your company.

Drew Ulmer

How to Interview and Hire Software Engineers

Hiring a software engineer is as much cult as science. But it doesn't have to be that way. As an interviewer, you have the opportunity to run your interviews in a way that, as closely as possible, represents the work and competencies you are hiring for.

Nick Ziess

Screening for Aptitude over Completeness

Over the many years that we've worked with each of our clients, we've learned a few things about growing teams. One of the biggest fallacies we've found in technical hiring is the idea that completeness is a meaningful way to assess ability in technical screenings.

Sumeet Jain