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In a time when technology is on the rise, concerns for web service security mirror its movement.
Forget about the gold and cryptocurrencies for a moment. The growth of interest in our data, and consequently its theft, is driven largely by data science, machine learning, deep learning, and even business intelligence.With the responsibility of carrying so much personal information about our customers, comes the task of managing the currency of data itself in an effective way. This is called web service security.
Part of hosting a web service is knowing the basics of web service security in order to protect your web application or website. Stay tuned to learn more about it!
What Is Web Service Security?
Web service security, also known as cybersecurity entails the methodologies involved in protecting a website or web application.
These methodologies specifically include detecting, preventing, and responding to cyber threats.
Data protection is crucial to web service security and there is no better way to illustrate this than the Equifax data breach, which impacted the personal information of approximately 147 million people in September of 2017.
Equifax is one of the three largest consumer credit reporting agencies in the US. It suffered a huge data breach all because of a little issue that could have been easily fixed.
More on that in a bit. In the wake of their scandal, Equifax will have to pay up to $700 million in fines as part of a settlement with federal authorities over this data breach.
There are many elements to web service security, but knowing the most fundamental parts might help you avoid a future breach and/or more than half a billion in fines.
Service-oriented architecture (SOA) security is a security model that addresses complex combination services as opposed to only one software program or platform.
Some standards implemented by SOA are explained below.
Authentication
Authentication refers to a means of verification for the user.
Using credentials, a password, or biometrics, or a combo of these methods, a service can verify that the user is who they claim to be.
Authorization
As a form of access control, authorization, grants users certain entitlements.
An employee in your tech company, for example, might have access to some directories and programming but not to the same degree as a higher level employee.
Related reading: Work From Home Cybersecurity: 10 Steps to Avoid Risks
Confidentiality
Confidentiality, or privacy, is the practice of securing data from others.
Personal contact information, for one, should not be shared with those who can compromise the information.
Integrity
Integrity has to do with preventing the alteration of a message. Generally, a sender’s digital signature can certify its validity on one end.
This is closely related to non repudiation which ensures that the author of a statement cannot deny its authenticity.
These components of web service security are considered industry standard.
At this point, their implementation is so prevalent as to be considered enforceable web service security requirements.
Any company managing a web service should be aware of these standards and deploy them accordingly.
Why Do We Need To Protect Our Web Services?
Failing to secure web services can result in serious consequences for the user as well as the service itself.
As an illustration, one coding hosting service was victim to a breach in which an attacker gained unauthorized access to their Amazon Web Services account.
The result of this failure was more than just a fine. The company, called Code Spaces, had to close shop permanently.
The costs associated with such a web service security blunder as well as Coding Spaces’s initial disregard for creating an effective recovery plan proved to be at the root of its detriment.
The hacker had already deleted valuable data and content. This is just one instance of how web security, or a lack thereof, affected dire circumstances on a company’s success.
All small businesses face the same risk.
This, of course, does not even begin to scratch the surface of the customers whose information was put in jeopardy in the process.
Successful businesses are built on good reputations and healthy consumer relationships. Ineffective web service security will not garner that effect.
8 Ways to Secure Your Web Service
The idea that web service security is a necessary precaution has been well-established.
Now, if you’re wondering how to secure your web services, pay attention to the 8 strategic ways listed below, to put cybersecurity at the forefront of your business goals.
1. Don’t Trust Your Client
There is no way of knowing whether our users have good intentions or not.
For vigilant web service security protocol, we should not trust any data inputted by our customer. This means that we need to check every input. We can do it with a blacklist or a whitelist.
In a blacklist, we have bad inputs that are deemed unacceptable as user inputs. In a whitelist, we have inputs that we allow to exist. Let’s take a look at an example.
We know that eval() is a function that executes strings as commands in Javascript.
Surely, a user with good intentions wouldn’t use this kind of content as an email. So, we will replace every eval() to be empty.
This can be helpful, however with every new threat we have to check our code and clean it up.
So for this stage, whitelists are more reliable than blacklists. We have awesome libraries that help us to create quick whitelists checks in our routes, for example, Hapi/JOI.
Look at this example, where we check the inputs for user authentication:
The example above is awesome because this library will guarantee us two things:
- A good whitelist with good standards. If the input doesn’t fit with our standards, the new Error() will be triggered.
- Protection against Parameter Injection, which means that the hacker tries to send more parameters to our routes. If there exists any different parameter besides email and password, the new Error() will be triggered;
In our example, the only parameters allowed are email and password, and they must adhere to our standards.
Don’t forget to use whitelists, they’re very helpful for web service security! They can help against Parameter Injection and XSS.
2. Use Bind-Params in Your SQL Statements
You’ve probably heard about SQL Injections, and how powerful they can be. If you haven’t heard about them then I suggest you read about them.
In addition, check OWASP Top Ten Attacks. But essentially, an attacker tries to change the queries that the system makes and gets access to the entire database.
I will never forget the day I was talking about SQL Injection breaches with one of my co-workers.
He challenged me to access a system that he made for his friend through a SQL Injection attack.
This system didn’t use the bind params, so I got the admin user and I put into the password field a well-known SQL Injection command to bypass the password for any user, and voilá! I got admin access.
Now, thinking back to this story, I feel that I should have bet on a beer with him.
The most simple solution is to use bind params. Bind params change the values inside of the database making it impossible to break the query and change to another one.
Nowadays, most ORMs use bind params as default but deliberately do not make a custom query and execute it without bind params.
For example, in Node.JS + Sequelize, if we want to use a custom query, we could do something like:
The image above shows two methods. The first method is an example with a custom query without bind params and the second is one with a custom query using bind params.
You might’ve guessed right – the second method is the better one.
If you have to use custom queries, then please, don’t forget to use the bind params. Also, ensure that your ORM uses them too.
I know Sequelize does this by watching the logs, and I know the most famous ORMs are using them.
But if you’re the kind of person that loves to try new technologies and libraries, this is a good point to start wondering whether that ORM is good or not.
Therefore, don’t use any kind of query without bind params. SQL Injection is considered one of the most famous of the top ten attacks on web applications, and it was discovered in the ’90s.
It shows how negligent the most developers and engineers have been.
I still don’t know why we don’t teach developers to use bind params since the first class to connect on the database and make queries.
3. Don’t Expose Sensitive Data
How often does your web service handle sensitive data?
If you never asked yourself this question, your web service likely exposes more sensitive data than you think.
The first step is to apply an SSL/TLS certificate on our web service and use it as the default connection. We can’t accept HTTP connections anymore for systems that use our personal information!
This certificate ensures that we have an encrypted connection between servers and customers, which almost mitigates “data sniffing” from a third party. This prevents a man-in-the-middle attack.
Next, ask yourself: How are you helping hackers access your information?
By showing system errors to them!
Errors can sometimes display a lot of sensitive information, such as the database system, table names, field names, constraint names, programming languages, and more.
Sometimes we can even see hosting information and passwords. When that happens, it gives hackers a means of exploring the known security breaches for the technology, systems, frameworks, and programming languages that your web service works with.
I can’t stress this one point enough. Do not show errors to users.
We need to intercept them and send them to programs like Rollbar or Sentry. These programs have great support for many languages.
Not to mention it’s pretty simple to configure your exceptions to show a default message to the user and send the system error to those tracker programs.
Altogether, it’s best to show the user a default error message or a descriptive user-friendly error message instead of showing the whole system error.
A great example of a default error message is “Internal Server Error”. It’s much safer for a system to show this rather than the whole system error.
4. Check Your Third-Party Libraries
I mentioned before that Equifax will pay up to $700 million in fines. Could you imagine your company being responsible for a huge data breach like that?
So, what happened with Equifax? Well, it’s not a complicated story to tell.
Equifax had a system that used Apache Struts. Two months before the attack, Apache Struts had announced a new patch to fix a specific vulnerability.
Two months later, the hacker was exploiting this vulnerability, meaning that Equifax didn’t update their systems.
This was the result:
To prevent this kind of problem, we have to look at our third-party libraries. Nowadays, it’s almost impossible to create any application without using any third-party library or framework.
But one has to ask, who made that library? How well managed is it?
We are human beings and we make mistakes. Therefore, as a developer, it is your responsibility to manage the integrations you use.
This means assess their risks, understand the potential effects it can have on your system, and stay up to date on any updates.
There’s a fantastic tool called Snyk, which keeps developers alert to failures, vulnerabilities, and problems with your integrations.
Snyk has a huge database with a lot of contributors and when they find a new vulnerability, they warn all their customers that use Snyk in their applications.
Most of the time they fix the new vulnerabilities automatically with one command that you need to run. Also, Snyk warns you via your email.
Snyk is a truly incredible tool when it comes to web service security!
I personally love how companies are working hard to give consumers outstanding value, especially when it comes to security.
That’s why their valuation surpasses one billion dollars.
They also have free plans and priced plans. Currently, I use the free plan for my personal projects. They support many languages and package managers.
5. Set Limits for the User
I’m very enthusiastic about cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin, and I talk more about the usage of blockchain on Trio's blog.
I remember witnessing the exchange falling because Bitcoin’s price was rising too fast.
After the owner lost a lot of money, they decided to invest more in architecture and introduced a new feature to their APIs: limits to the client.
In the exchange, to guarantee good performance, they send a new result every minute. If you request the same route several times in that same minute, you’ll get the same cached result.
It’s a great way to ensure more performance and to decrease the chances of your server falling down.
Of course, we have to study and analyze the business impacts of caching the response every minute.
Using a layer to protect your service from DDoS attacks such as Cloudflare is also a great idea, and we can combine their solution with a good architecture on our APIs.
This is actually what the exchange did. They combined a cached result with Cloudflare DDoS protection.
6. Read the Security Section in the Manual of Your Library
Apparently, we are reading less and less, generation after generation. Also, we’re having problems paying attention for extended periods of time.
As a software engineer, I know that patience, attention, and reading are big facets of our daily routine.
Ergo, it’s vital that we discipline ourselves and read the documentation from our frameworks and third libraries, including the security section.
By using Express, I’ve noticed that we have a section called “Advanced Topics” and “Security Best Practices”.
This is awesome.
But I know that most software engineers that have installed Express haven’t read the Express documentation and probably never bothered diving into the “Advanced Topics” section, much less the “Security Best Practices” page.
Reading is probably the easiest way to familiarize yourself with the base tenets of web service security.
To my surprise, when I decided to implement Express in one of my APIs, I saw this section and found that Express offers wonderful documentation on how to protect your web service with Express.
With that documentation, I was able to learn how to use Express in a way that did not compromise my system in the future.
7. Don’t Be Paranoid and Continue to Study Security
After studying security for my applications and web services, I started to go a little crazy!
I couldn’t finish my tasks on time because I was thinking too much about all of the potential security breaches in my code.
We have to remember that even big organizations like the CIA, Sony, eBay, Yahoo, JP Morgan Chase, Netshoes, Dropbox, and YouTube, have been hacked.
Considering that, don’t be so paranoid about your services. After all, if the hackers really want to hack your application, they probably will find a way.
It’s just in their nature. The real question is: how much time do you need to identify that a hacker bypassed your security barriers?
With good logs and strong alerts strategy, we can identify breaches sooner and thus act on them quicker.
This is not an excuse to tell yourself that it’s pointless because hackers will win.
Developers and cybersecurity professionals work to build as many walls, mazes, traps and other defenses for hackers to become discouraged and leave their system alone.
So it’s best to make the hacker’s job as difficult as possible in hope that they will move on to their next target.
Also, don’t neglect to study web service security. This article covers the most basic webs service security techniques.
However, we should be learning these approaches in college or in beginner tutorials on the Internet. Most developers are not interested in protecting their services at a basic level.
That’s a problem.
Again, don’t be consumed with paranoia. At the same time, continue to study and invest time in protecting your applications.
A good resource to study is the OWASP page, especially the projects page. You can download the “Lab” projects and attempt to hack the software yourself.
These projects have security breaches implemented on purpose. It’s fun to learn in this way where you’re in the position of the hacker and the software engineer is trying to stop your attack.
This form of web services security testing is similar to a coding challenge. The Node.JS project OWASP learning environment is called NodeGoat. There’s a tutorial guide to help you hack and protect the project.
There are projects in other programming languages as well. It’s worth taking a look at them.
The only way to truly find ways to stop a hacker is to think like one and break your own system. This is the fundamental idea of penetration testing, which is a major player in web service security.
8. Logs and Monitoring
There are some situations where we need to audit our data to answer questions like “Who edited this line?” or “What’s making our server so slow?
These are key questions to ask in regards to web service security.
We can’t answer these questions if we don’t have good logs. That could be dangerous to any company, including if a company needs to identify a user with bad intentions.
Imagine the following situation:
Someone hacked your web service to process payments from the clients. And your boss asks, “How did the hacker pass through our security barriers?”
This could be a tough question if you don’t have good logs to start your investigation with.
I doubt any executive is trying to hear that there weren’t any logs and therefore there is no way of knowing.
That wouldn’t get you very far. Remember to make logs and make sure you have a system in place to keep track of them.
These are only a few of the strategies you can use to ensure that your web service is secure.
Like mentioned, you should take the time to do your own research and study up on best practices for web service security.
Conclusion
It’s important to start thinking about cybersecurity with our web applications and applying what we learn through research and practice to guarantee a safer system.
Equifax and Code Spaces are good examples of what not to do.
You can use the intel provided here to avoid those mistakes. This includes utilizing better coding techniques like bind-params or even making use of third-party services like Snyk.
If you want to guarantee your system is secure, it would be in your best interest to hire skilled developers to enhance your cybersecurity measure.
At Trio we offer remote software developers that can work cohesively with your company and business goals.
Hopefully, we’ve convinced you that web service security is one of them.
Trio bridges the gap between software expertise and South American developer talent. Meet our top-tier Argentinean, Chilean, and Brazilian developers for outsourcing excellence.
Contact Trio now to get the security you need.
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C is a general-purpose programming language, meaning it can be used for a wide variety of purposes from building operating systems to computer applications. The language also supports a number of features and paradigms including structured programming, lexical variable scope, and recursion.
Structured programming is a programming paradigm that favors one, singular structure per program. In this way, code executes instruction by instruction chronologically.
With structured programming, alternatively called modular programming, code is readable and there is leeway for reusable components, which most developers find helpful.
Lexical scoping refers to the semantic scope of variable names in a function or program. In other words, lexical variable scope answers the questions of whether a given variable has meaning outside of the function it is written in – and this is determined by the surrounding code.
In recursive programming, functions have the ability to call on themselves, whether directly or indirectly. The utility of this feature is to break up a problem into smaller problems. Specifically, coders can use a previously established value to compute a new one.
The C programming language uses a static type system as well. Within the context of programming languages, static type systems involve static type checking where the language checks your code before it is even compiled.
The main advantage of static typing is early error detection. This can help to reduce the time spent debugging later on.
As far as background, C was developed by Dennis Ritchie in 1972. Its initial purpose was to write operating systems. Low-level access to memory, the use of simple keywords, and a clean syntax makes C easy to use for such a task.
Overall, C is one of the optimal programming languages when it comes to systems programming.
Systems programming is programming where developers build integral software systems that other applications rely on. These systems include firmware, operating systems, and development environments.
C flourishes in this undertaking because it is a middle-level language. Low-level languages like assembly language talk to computers in the most direct format that you can imagine. The downside of this is that humans struggle to keep up with the conversation.
This is why there are high-level languages. High-level languages abstract machine code to where human developers can talk to computers on their own terms. Most coders have found this to be the most efficient way of writing programs.
However, C is a combination of both. It is a middle-level language and as such developers can use it for low-level programming like building kernels and drivers as well as high-level programming like developing software applications.
What Is a C developer?
C developers are closely familiar with the fundamentals of systems programming. They develop code that integrates into base computer systems. Embedded systems, operating systems, and kernel modules all rely on systems programmers like C developers.
C++ is nearly a superset of C. Save a few minor details, the two languages are very similar. Expert C developers may learn C++ as well to increase their effectiveness.
Other languages in the repertoire of C developers might be higher-level languages and frameworks that work well with C like Java, Node.js, and Python.
As systems programmers, C developers have strong problem-solving skills and use structural programming to write clean, reusable code.
Why Use C?
The first and foremost justification for using C would be if you wanted to build an operating system. After all, in the 1970s, C was the vessel in which UNIX was re-designed. But despite the goal-oriented origins of the C language, various elements of its development make it a fitting language to use for an array of needs.
Middle-level
There are only a handful of middle-level languages. And if you were to pick them out, you’d probably come up with Java and C++ in addition to C, and there’s even some dissent there.
Either way, the general consensus is that C is a middle-level language. Because of this, C is one of the best languages for building both systems and applications. Therefore its usage is by definition flexible.
Structured
As a programming paradigm, structured programming allows developers to make complex programs by compartmentalizing their codes into simpler structures via task-oriented functions. Some examples of structural programming in action are if-else statements and for-loops.
Though many languages make use of this type of programming, C may very well be the oldest structural programming language that still maintains its popularity. This is because C is reliable.
Portable
Portability describes how compatible certain computer programming languages are in diverse environments. In the case of C, the language plays a major part in Windows, UNIX, and Linux operating systems, demonstrating its portable nature.
General
C is general-purpose. In effect, no matter what you want to develop, C is there for you – for games, graphics, applications, and more.
Advantages of Using C
C is equipped with a number of supportive features to develop keeping high-level functionality in mind. As the intent of C was to develop operating systems, its features must be fully comprehensive and performant.
Case-Sensitive
C is case sensitive. Lowercase and uppercase letters are differentiated. This can make certain elements of coding far less confusing and more direct. It’s also easier to parse through case-sensitive code.
Dynamic Library
The library C offers is rich with built-in features and is furnished with dynamic memory allocation. What’s more, C has much less library functions than other languages but just as many functions, simplifying their deployment.
Keyword Simplicity
In computer programming, keywords are the smallest building blocks of programming that work as gateways to writing complex code.
Keywords like if, else, and return may be familiar to you. The C language only has 32 keywords, overall only a small number to remember and eventually master.
Embedded Usage
C is the go-to language for developing embedded systems, Embedded systems contain hardware and/or software designed for specific functions. Digital cameras and robots are good examples of embedded systems.
Developers use C for embedded systems because it is flexible. The high-level abstraction of C combined with its low-level alliances make it a great language for this sort of development.
Companies That Use C
- IBM
- Nokia
- Samsung
- VMWare
- Huawei
- Microsoft Windows
Reasons to Hire a C Developer
It’s fairly common for businesses to go the mobile app route in contemporary software development. They’ll cross out a couple of months on their calendar, get a grasp of Java or Swift – for Android or Apple respectively – and be on their way.
App development is an accomplishment no matter how you do it. But when things become commonplace and you follow the lead of your competitors, it becomes difficult for your business to stand out.
If you wish to stay competitive, your business needs to be challenged. Rather than putting an app on the app store, why not develop an entire software.
Adobe, most Google applications, and the entire Linux operating system was built with C. These are software systems that have topped the technology sector and have garnered worldwide familiarity and usage.
Most popular C programs aren’t simply apps, they’re relevant components of daily work and life for millions of users. Depending on the developers you hire, you’ll have the resources you need to do the same.
It starts with a good idea, and the right developers to manifest it. Hire a C developer.
Hire a C Developer
C is well over 30 years old. With languages being built every other fortnight, it’s hard to keep up with the competition. But somehow C has managed all the while.
Of course, old age does come with consequences. The market favors young people who favor young languages. This doesn’t make C less trustworthy or useful, but it is a little tougher to find the professionals you’ll need to program in C.
Trust the process, trust your research. Trio also has resources to help you. Take a look.
How do you hire a C developer?
For those who wish to take the high road and hire C developers on your own, we’re still here to help.
Hiring a developer on your own is a very focused and hands-on process that requires considerable knowledge about software development in general.
The last thing you want to do is trust your hiring process to someone with no technical ability. If you are a non-technical manager looking to learn a thing or two, we have a great resource here for you to learn more about the hiring process in detail.
Otherwise, we’d recommend you contact Trio for consulting and developer allocation.
What should you look for in a C developer?
C developers at a high-level should demonstrate the following skills:
- Proficiency in C and preferably in C++ as well
- Knowledge of high-level languages that are often integrated with C such as Java, Python, Go, or Node.js
- Abstract critical thinking and problem-solving aptitude
- Ability to write and implement algorithms and data structures
How much do developers cost in the U.S.?
ZipRecruiter data reports that the average yearly salary of a C developer is $117,673 On the higher end, C developers can make as much as $155,500 per year. But C developers can also make as little as $67,500 annually.
How much do developers cost in South America?
Due to economic differences between the United States and South America as a whole, the cost of offshoring software development is significantly lower than hiring full-time with U.S talent. For Senior C Developers in South America, the average salary is currently around $100,000 whereas a mid-level developer costs around $76,000.
How much do developers cost in Ukraine / Eastern Europe?
Eastern Europe shares very similar rates to South America, again due to the economic differences. When looking at salaries in Eastern Europe, data shows that a Senior C Developer costs around $100,000 on average.
Hourly Rates for Developers
Another way to look at developer costs is through hourly rates. While salaries are good to understand for hiring developers for full-time and long-term, you might just need a developer for a period of 3-6 months or 6-12 months. In these types of situations, it’s best to calculate your costs based on the hourly rates of a developer.
Below is a table that lists the various hourly rates of developers in different locations based on their job title.
Why Hire a C Developer?
Trio C developers are pre-vetted, interviewed, and then trained further to become true software professionals, capable of adapting to situations that are both within and outside of the scope of their general expertise.
At Trio, we hold our developers to a higher standard. Much like how elite special forces units recruit only the best from main branches of the military, we recruit developers who either show amazing potential or demonstrate exceptional skill. We then take their talents and sharpen them even further.
Another benefit of hiring a Trio developer is that you won’t incur the costs of hiring, which can add up to be around 30% of a developer’s salary on average, as well as overhead costs associated with full-time employment.
By working with Trio, you can enjoy a highly experienced full-time developer for a fraction of the cost, along with the added project management assistance.
To learn more, tell us about your project and we’ll get you started.
C Resources
Introduction
Are you feeling overwhelmed by the prospect of hiring a Flutter Developer? Perhaps this particular technology is not your area of expertise and are you are unsure how to structure your hiring process. Fear not, as we are here to help you navigate this process and find a skilled Software Engineer who can add value to your business.
By leveraging our expertise in hiring high-level developers, we can help you evaluate technical talent and strengthening your engineering team. With our guidance and support, you can confidently conduct a hiring process with Flutter Developers and enhance the performance of your Engineering Team.
We would like to thank you for taking the time to visit us today. We hope that you will find the information provided to be both helpful and informative. Please stay with us and read on as we share some valuable tips that we believe you will find useful in your daily life.
What’s a Flutter Developer?
A Flutter developer is a software engineer who has proficiency with the Flutter framework to develop mobile, web, and desktop applications. By association, Flutter developers have fluency in writing code using the Dart programming language and are therefore Dart developers as well.
Flutter developers can be web or mobile app developers. As such, they may have prior experience and expertise in other frameworks and languages like JavaScript or Ionic. Some Flutter developers may only be familiar with Flutter.
The Flutter framework is intentionally and wholeheartedly tied to UI design. Widgets are one of its defining characteristics. They must have comparable skill in optimizing graphical interactions for the user.
The role of this type of developer is crucial in the software development industry. The responsibilities of a Flutter developer may vary depending on the project requirements, but some common tasks include:
- Developing and maintaining applications;
- Developing and implementing custom widgets and UI components;
- Integrating third-party libraries and APIs;
- Ensuring the application's performance, quality, and responsiveness;
- Collaborating with cross-functional teams, including designers, product managers, and other developers;
- Participating in the development process from design to deployment and maintenance.
- Working with cross-platform frameworks.
- Debug and test Flutter code, using tools such as the Flutter DevTools, unit testing, and integration testing.
- Use version control tools such as Git, SVN, or Mercurial to manage their codebase.
What you can build using Flutter
Flutter is a versatile and powerful framework for building mobile applications for Android, iOS, and other platforms. With Flutter, developers can build a wide range of applications, including but not limited to:
- Social media applications: Flutter is a versatile platform for building social media apps that can include a range of features, such as instant messaging, push notifications, and media sharing capabilities.
- Business applications: Flutter is a great option for creating business apps that require robust functionality, such as CRM, inventory management, and project management tools.
- E-commerce applications: Flutter is a great option for creating e-commerce apps that offer features such as a product catalog, shopping cart, payment gateway integration, and more.
- Educational applications: Flutter enables developers to create educational applications such as e-learning platforms, online courses, and interactive learning tools, all while providing a user-friendly experience.
- Gaming applications: Flutter is also capable of building games with 2D and 3D graphics, animations, sound effects, and other exciting features.
In general, Flutter offers developers the versatility and features to create a variety of mobile apps for various industries and purposes.
Companies that use Flutter
- The New York Times
- Square
- eBay
- BMW
- Alibaba
Which are the soft skills a Flutter Developer should have?
As you need to hire a Developer who can perfectly unfold within your team and company taking into account just technical skills would not be enough, and this is when soft skills play a big role. So now let’s dive into some basic soft skills good developers should have.
Some essential soft skills for a Flutter Developer should include:
- Communication: Being able to communicate effectively, especially in remote and asynchronous environments, is a real necessity for any professional nowadays. Communication skills are always in high demand, whether it's through describing ideas, discussing approaches, giving presentations, providing status updates, giving feedback, asking questions, or voicing concerns. The ability to communicate ideas clearly and to understand communicated ideas is of critical importance to ensure a well-aligned, agile team.
- Team Work: Individuals should demonstrate adaptability to various projects and environments. However, it is extremely important for them to value working within a team that allows for easy navigation, knowledge sharing, idea contribution, and learning from other team members. They should also be able to provide and receive feedback, pass on information, ask questions, and offer help when needed.
- Collaboration: Every project involves multiple people, and team members must be able to work with one another effectively. Collaboration is the combination of all of the above qualities in order to effect positive change and move the project and company forward.
- Adaptability: The ability to adapt to new circumstances, situations, scenarios, and environments is vital for professionals to cope with changes, challenges, fast-paced environments, uncertainty, and lack of predictability. It enables them to be more creative and resilient, providing solutions and new strategies whenever any shifts occur.
Hiring Process for a Flutter Developer
To hire technical talent who is the best fit for your company and project, you should ensure that your hiring process is aligned with your needs. This will provide you with useful and valuable information to help you make an informed decision before extending an offer letter to a developer.
We have listed below some steps that can be implemented in your hiring process to help you ace it and bring on board the right developer for your business.
Main Steps in the Hiring Process
Job Description
A great process starts with a well-written job description. It should contain important information, such as a brief description of the company and project, the main responsibilities of the professional, the seniority needed for the role, technical requirements, desired soft skills, salary, and perks.
An appealing and accurate job description can better attract targeted candidates, providing you with a more qualified list of applicants. It's important to remember that you don't want to get attention of all software engineers available in the market, but rather the ones that are aligned with your company's culture and the specific role.
Sourcing
Unlike other fields, the technical industry has its own unique challenges when it comes to attracting candidates. Simply posting job openings on job boards may not be sufficient to generate a substantial pool of qualified applicants. Therefore, it is important to proactively source candidates from a variety of channels, rather than solely relying on applicants to respond to job postings. Some of the sources that tech recruiters use to find candidates include GitHub, GitLab, LinkedIn, Telegram, Discord servers, and consultancy companies.
To use some of the aforementioned platforms, your team should know how to apply Boolean search to filter only candidates that align with your vacancy.
Screening
After gathering a sufficient number of applicants, you will begin screening candidates to determine their suitability for the position. During this part of the process, you may review resumes, portfolios, cover letters, and repositories to ensure that you only got to candidates who meet the minimum requirements for the role.
Among the relevant skillset for the vacancy, recruiters and hiring managers typically look for experiences, seniority, certifications, fluency in some specific language, educational background, certain projects or business, main technologies used, location and candidates’ salary expectations.
Screening can be done manually, through a specific platform or an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). Choosing the best option for your needs will depend on the company's budget. A robust ATS with integrations with other tools and the ability to filter candidates by their expertise is ideal because it saves a lot of time and resources.
Interview
This is one of the most important steps of the hiring process for developers. It’ll allow you to fully understand if the talent is really aligned to the company and project. A good interview can extract valuable information from candidates that will make it possible for you to decide whether they will continue in the process or not. For that, it’s essential to have good questions to gather answers regarding technical and soft skills.
During an interview, you can ask various types of questions, such as behavioral, situational, competency-based, fact-based, skill-based, and technical questions, among others.
It’s also important that you present the company to the candidate, letting them know more about your culture, working environment, way of working and anything else that defines your company.
Technical Validation
After making sure the developers align to the skillset the role requires, you will need to check their technical abilities to ensure it meets the project’s expectations. Knowing exactly what’s the technical level that the candidates should have can help you design the type of technical validation that best adapts to your needs.
To technically validate candidates you can use technical interviews, technical tests/assessments, pair programming, project executions, live coding, work portfolio/GitHub reviews and team interviews, among others.
If you don't feel prepared to conduct technical interviews with developers because you're unsure of what questions to ask or how to evaluate their answers, you can try Genie, Trio's AI-powered interview question generator.
Hire a Flutter Developer with Trio
Trio Flutter developers are pre-vetted, interviewed, and then trained further to become true software professionals, capable of adapting to situations that are both within and outside of the scope of their general expertise.
At Trio, we hold our developers to a higher standard. Much like how elite special forces units recruit only the best from main branches of the military, we recruit developers who either show amazing potential or demonstrate exceptional skill.
We offer flexibility in terms of project requirements and team size adjusting it according to the project's needs. This allows our partners to scale up their project requirements as needed.
Moreover, we are committed to delivering high-quality apps within a reasonable time frame, with a proven track record of delivering projects on time and within budget without compromising on quality. A Trio developer is that you won’t incur the costs of hiring, which can add up to be around 30% of a developer’s salary on average, as well as overhead costs associated with full-time employment. All in all, by working with Trio, you can enjoy a highly experienced full-time developer for a fraction of the cost, along with the added project management assistance.
Last but not least, we value excellent communication and support throughout the project's life cycle. This ensures that our partners’ requirements are understood, and the project is delivered as per their expectations.
How much do flutter developers cost?
The cost of hiring a Flutter Developer can vary depending on the size of the company, their budget and also the seniority of the role. It is advisable to ask candidates about their salary expectations and compare them to your own budget. This helps to avoid putting candidates through the entire hiring process only to find out you cannot meet their expectations. It is important to be transparent throughout the hiring process.
It is also essential to consider that the cost of hiring software engineers in Latin America is significantly lower compared to American or Canadian professionals.
While hiring developers in Ukraine or Eastern Europe may also yield cost savings, the time zone difference may present challenges depending on the team's availability for collaboration. In such cases, hiring developers from Latin America proves to be a viable alternative as they can readily adapt to the Eastern or Pacific Time Zone.
At Glassdoor you can run some searches about the paid salary for Flutter Developers accordingly to their region.
We hope this guide can assist you in structuring your hiring process. However, keep in mind that you do not have to do it alone, as Trio is here to add value to your business by providing vetted and experienced talent that can easily meet your requirements and navigate across various business and project types. Additionally, Trio simplifies the hiring process by providing valuable insights into candidates' salary expectations, allowing you to make informed decisions about who to hire. Overall, if you require a senior Flutter developer, Trio is an excellent resource to consider.
Structured one-on-one meetings are like following a recipe, they provide managers with the opportunity to connect with your team members, understand their goals and challenges, provide feedback and guidance, and ensure all the necessary ingredients are in place so that everyone is aligned and working towards a common goal. In this guide, we'll explore some best practices for engineering managers hosting one-on-ones with team members.
7 benefits of one-on-one meetings
You can use one-on-one meetings for a variety of reasons, including:
Connecting with team members
Creating a supportive space for discussion can foster a team culture of open communication and feedback. One-on-ones provide managers an opportunity to get to know team members as a person and teammates.
Helping employees achieve their goals
Identifying goals and action items for your employees is an important part of supporting their growth and development. Here are some steps to help you identify goals and action items for your team members:
- Discuss aspirations: Ask about career aspirations and what your employees would like to achieve in their role. This can help identify areas where they are motivated to develop their experience.
- Identify areas for improvement: Review performance and identify areas where employees can improve their skills or knowledge. This can include technical, soft, or management skills.
- Establish accountability: Determine who will be responsible for each action item and set deadlines for completion. This can help ensure that progress is being made and that goals are being achieved.
- Set SMART goals: Work with your employee to set SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) goals that align with their aspirations and areas for improvement. These goals should be challenging yet achievable and provide a clear direction for their development.
- Create action items: Identify specific actions individuals can take to achieve their goals. These should be practical, realistic, and aligned with the employee’s skills. Some examples include:
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Attending a training course or workshop
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Shadowing a senior team member on a project to gain more experience and exposure to new skills and techniques.
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Setting up regular 1:1 meetings with a mentor or coach to receive feedback
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Taking on a leadership role in a project
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Collaborating with another team on a project to gain experience in cross-functional team dynamics.
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Writing a technical blog post
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Contributing to an open-source project
Sharing performance feedback
Providing constructive feedback to your peers as an engineering manager is an important aspect of building a strong and effective team. Here are some tips on how to provide constructive feedback to your team:
- Be specific: Provide examples to support your feedback. This will help your team members understand what they did well or what they need to improve on.
- Example: "I noticed during the last team meeting that you interrupted others while they were speaking. I love that you're excited about this topic, but try to let others finish their thoughts before sharing your own ideas."
- Be objective: Don’t making personal attacks or being overly critical. Focus on the facts and be objective in your feedback.
- Use a positive tone: Frame your feedback in a positive way, emphasizing the things your team members did well and offer suggestions for improvement.
- Example: "You did a great job presenting during the last client meeting. However, I think it would be even more effective if you could use more visual aids to support your points."
- Focus on behavior: Focus on the behavior or actions that you are providing feedback on, rather than on the person.
- Example: "During the last sprint, there were a few instances where your communication with the team could have been clearer. Let's work on improving our communication going forward to avoid any misunderstandings."
- Offer solutions: Provide specific solutions or suggestions for improvement. This can help your team members understand how they can improve and feel more motivated to make changes. If you have a solution or action plan right away, that’s OK. You both can take time to brainstorm possibilities.
- Example: "I noticed that you've been struggling with a particular coding challenge. Perhaps some training sessions or taking an online course to improve your skills in that area might help. What do you think?"
- Follow up: Check in with your team member after providing feedback to ensure that they understand the feedback and are making progress towards improvement.
- Example: "Thanks for taking my feedback on board. Let's check in next week to see how things are going and discuss any further"
Addressing concerns or issues
Giving your team a safe environment to discuss concerns or issues allows managers to identify and resolve hiccups before they escalate and become bigger problems.
Prioritizing career development
Helping employees identify areas for growth and development, as well as provide guidance on how to achieve their career goals is essential for long-term success.
Aligning team members Bringing team members together
Carving out time on a regular basis (i.e. monthly) to review team objectives, discuss progress, and identify areas for improvement is key to making sure your team is working toward the same goals.
Offering recognition and rewards
Recognizing and rewarding team members for their hard work and achievements can boost morale and motivation. Regularly acknowledging successes, offering praise, and discussing rewards creates an environment in which everyone feels trust, safety, accountability, and equity.
How to prepare for one-on-one meetings
Be consistent but flexible
To create consistent and open communication, establish a regular cadence (weekly or bi-weekly) for one-on-one meetings with each team member. However, leaving room to adjust as needed is crucial. For instance, if a team member is struggling with a particular issue or project, you may decide to increase the frequency of your one-on-one meetings to provide additional support and guidance.
Give ample time
The length of one-on-one meetings between a manager and a team member can vary depending on the needs and goals of the team member and the availability of the manager. However, a typical length for a one-on-one meeting is between 30 to 60 minutes. It's important to note that the length of the meeting should not be the primary focus, but rather the quality of the conversation and the outcomes achieved. The meeting should allow sufficient time to cover the key topics on the agenda and provide an opportunity for open and productive communication between the manager and team member. The one-on-one meeting should be focused on the team member's goals, challenges, and development. Give the team members ample time to speak and share their thoughts, ideas, and concerns.
Provide an agenda
Before your one-on-one meetings, take some time to review the team member’s recent work. This will help you identify any areas where the team member needs additional support or guidance. Use this information to create and share an agenda 24 hours prior to the meeting that outlines the topics you want to discuss. Here's a sample agenda:
|
Topic |
Summary |
Time |
|
Check-in |
Begin the meeting by asking how the team member is doing and if there are any updates or concerns they would like to discuss. |
5 mins |
|
Progress and accomplishments |
Review the team member's progress on current projects and discuss any accomplishments since the last one-on-one meeting |
10 mins |
|
Challenges and obstacles |
Discuss any challenges or obstacles the team member is facing and work together to identify potential solutions. |
10 mins |
|
Feedback |
Provide feedback on the team member's performance, including strengths and areas for improvement. Encourage the team member to provide feedback on your performance as well. |
10 mins |
|
Goals and development |
Set goals for the team member, both short-term and long-term, and identify actionable steps to achieve them. Discuss opportunities for growth and development within the team or organization. |
15 mins |
|
Action items and follow-up |
Recap the key takeaways from the meeting and identify any action items and next steps. Follow up on action items in the next one-on-one meeting. |
5 mins |
|
Wrap-up |
End the meeting by thanking the team member for their time and contributions, and reiterate your support for their success. |
2 mins |
Questions to ask yourself before your next one-on-one
|
Career desires |
What does each team member see as their next role? |
|
Does each team member have a career plan, or are they seeking guidance? |
|
|
What are their aspirations for their next role and how can we help them get there? |
|
|
Team skills |
Who are your high performing team members? |
|
Which key skills does each team member own? |
|
|
What do they enjoy doing the most? |
|
|
Which projects did they excel at? |
|
|
What is their main area for improvement? How can I help them improve? |
|
|
Who works in a close capacity, and which team members rarely speak with one another? |
|
|
Strategic team alignment |
Does everyone on the team feel on the same page? |
|
How is team communication? |
|
|
Are there frequent fire drills, and how are fire drills handled? |
|
|
Is anyone carrying significantly more weight? |
|
|
How are they feeling about their workload? |
|
|
What obstacles are they running into with their current work projects? |
|
|
What makes their job harder? |
|
|
Is there anything I can do to be more helpful leaders to them? |
|
|
Do team members know the strategy for the quarter and year? |
Questions to ask during one-on-one meetings
By asking the right questions during one-on-one meetings, you can encourage your team to share thoughts and ideas and support development and career growth.
Here are some questions to ask:
|
Type |
Use case |
Example |
|
Open-ended questions |
Use open-ended questions that encourage team members to share their thoughts and ideas in detail. |
"What's been challenging for you lately?" or "What do you think could be improved on this project? |
|
Clarifying questions |
Ask clarification questions to ensure you fully understand your team members’ perspective. |
Example: "Can you explain what you mean by that?" or "Can you give me an example of what you're referring to?" |
|
Follow-up questions |
Ask follow-up questions to explore a topic in more detail. |
"How did that make you feel?" or "What do you think we could do differently next time?" |
|
Goal-oriented questions |
Ask goal-oriented questions that help your team members focus on their development and career aspirations. |
"What are your career goals in the next 12 months?" or "What skills do you want to develop in your role?" |
End the one-on-one meeting on a positive note, acknowledging the team member's progress and accomplishments. Provide clear expectations for the next meeting.
How to handle difficult conversations
Listen
Actively listen to your team member's concerns and show genuine interest in their perspective. This can help build trust and encourage more open and honest communication.
Stay calm
Keep the conversation focused on the issue at hand and avoid getting emotional.
Focus on solutions
Brainstorm ideas together and come up with a plan for moving forward.
5 reasons why taking notes matters
It’s important to capture key points and action items, but also to be present and engaged in the conversation. Your notes don’t need to be a transcript, rather use a consistent format or template to recap the conversation. You can use a shared document or note-taking app, to keep your notes organized and easily accessible. Here are five reasons why meeting notes are essential to success.
- Document progress: Taking notes can help you document the progress of your team members and keep track of their goals, accomplishments, and areas for improvement.
- Prepare for future meetings: Notes can be used to prepare for future one-on-one meetings and ensure that you are following up on action items and addressing any ongoing concerns.
- Identify patterns: By taking notes on common themes or issues that arise during one-on-one meetings, you can identify patterns or trends that may require further attention.
"John expressed some concerns about workload and time management. - Provide feedback: Notes can be used to provide feedback on the team member's performance and identify areas for improvement. "Steve has been struggling to meet deadlines lately. Let's work together to identify any obstacles and come up with a plan to improve."
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Demonstrate active listening: Taking notes can demonstrate to your team member that you are actively listening and engaged in the conversation.
4 tools to enhance your one-on-one meetings
There are many tools available for capturing one-on-one meeting notes and actions as an engineering manager. Here are some we’ve found helpful:
- Note-taking apps: Apps like Evernote, OneNote, and Google Keep are popular for taking notes during one-on-one meetings. These apps allow you to create notes, tag them for easy organization, and share them with others.
- Task management tools: Tools like Trello, Asana, and Monday.com can be used to track action items and deadlines discussed during one-on-one meetings. You can assign tasks to team members, set due dates, and track progress.
- Communication platforms: Platforms like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Google Chat can be used to record notes and actions during one-on-one meetings in a dedicated channel or chat. This allows you to easily reference past discussions and keep all related information in one place.
- Dedicated software: There are many dedicated software solutions available specifically for one-on-one meeting management. Examples include Lattice, 15Five, and Reflektive.
By prioritizing regular check-ins with your team, you can improve communication, foster stronger relationships, and ultimately drive better business outcomes. If you're looking to take your staff augmentation efforts to the next level, Trio can help!
With our experienced team and comprehensive solutions, we can provide the support and expertise you need to achieve your goals.
Visit our website today to learn more.