We invited StartechUp for the Philippines Top 500 Tech Companies interview, and we were thrilled when they accepted. In this interview, we will learn about how this amazing company started, what it takes to become part of StartechUp’s family, and the skills they are looking for from developers.
Self Introduction: Could you tell us briefly about yourself?
Baptiste:
“So, I’m Baptiste. I’ve been in IT for a couple of decades now. I can say ‘couple’ since it’s been almost 20 years since I’ve been in computer science in general. I’ve been working with consulting companies, banks, and IT companies in Silicon Valley, including. [I’m] passionate about how the digital world can help businesses thrive, and I’ve been doing that for a while.” |
Company Introduction: Please tell us about your company’s background and other things you’d like to share.
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Baptiste:
“I decided to create my own company nine years ago. That’s why I came to the Philippines, to discover Filipino talents in the IT industry. They always ask me, ‘Why the Philippines?’ There are three simple reasons; 1) A lot of IT talents in the Philippines. 2) English speaking. First, I do believe good Software Engineers must be very fluent since all the materials or documents are in English. So, if you really want to be a good developer much better to deal with English all the time. 3) The third one is definitely the cost of living. So these converging points brought me here to the Philippines. And since then, I have launched StartechUp, which is our development center. What we do is deliver or provide IT development services for companies in Europe, North America, Australia, and so on. “Our company delivers only custom-made solutions on the web and mobile. We’ve been avoiding, as much as possible, staying within the company website for the eCommerce niche, which to me, is not IT engineering but more like using off-the-shelf solutions. All those solutions that we can find on Google very easily, and that is all about configuring them.” |
StartechUp name history
Kath:
“How did you come up with the name ‘StartechUp.’” |
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Baptiste:
“I love the startup mindset, which is basically the mindset of getting it done. We wanted to work with startups. And as IT engineers, we love tech. And to simply put, ‘StartechUp.’ That’s how the name came to be.” |
What tools, programs, or programming languages do you use in your company?
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Baptiste:
“We have mostly two divisions: web division and the other one is mobile application. When it comes to the web, we always divide it into several aspects, which are what we call back-end and front-end. Aside from that, DevOps or Server Administrator. “When it comes to languages or frameworks, in the back-end, we deal with the major ones, which will be Python, at first. Because I’m a data-driven analyst, so I love this programming language, but it’s been changing a lot into Node.js nowadays. A lot of projects are in Node.js. We still have the Laravel type of framework, which is on PHP. And then the last one is the .NET Core because we are cross-platform. So, that’s for the back-end. “For the front-end, we have the most common frameworks, which are Angular, Vue, and React. Most of these front-end frameworks are the most popular. So that’s for the web. “When it comes to mobile, it’s very simple, it’s iOS and Android, and we are always on the latest languages. On Android, we are mostly on Kotlin, and on iOS, we are definitely on Swift. “We’ve been experimenting on other frameworks or our programming languages. So we’ve been using React.js, Ionic, and all these different hybrid solutions that help you to develop on iOS and Android at the same time.” |
Do you have job openings?
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Baptiste:
“Yes. We constantly have job openings. We are looking for backend developers for Node.js and Laravel. And it’s really based on the demand. So we follow the market. We used to have a lot of Python requests but now, not much. There are a lot in .NET or PHP. So that’s it for backend developers. “For frontend developers, Angular, React, or Vue. We do look, sometimes, for Flutter developers, and always iOS and Android developers.” |
What do you look for in a developer candidate?
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Baptiste:
“You need to have the fundamentals in development, that’s given. You have to develop certain projects that are tangible, that we can really see. Because, again, to become a good developer, you need to experience a lot, a lot, a lot. You need to develop projects one after another for many, many months. It is definitely something that takes a fairly long time to become good at. “We really recruit not only for your technical skills but rather for your mindset. Let’s compare, let’s have an example of two candidates because people will be interested in understanding with examples. “Candidate A) A fresh grad who has been doing a lot of side projects on different technologies, who can show it to us, who is working on weekends or at night instead of playing Fortnite or whatever other video games, he’s done that as an investment to himself. “Candidate B) Someone who has a one-year experience but has been doing only small PSD to HTML conversion, a small HTML project, which is something that we can basically learn in a week or two. He is interested in how much will be his salary increase after a year. And by changing his job, just because he will get a few thousand pesos, or ten thousand or whatever. “If you look at these two candidates, clearly, my decision will be to take the fresh grad, the entry-level who has worked himself out of passion, out of like ‘I’m interested in investing in myself.’ Now, of course, the other example is if the other has also been working on the sideline and has the mindset of what it is to work with a company, plus he has proven the passion. “That’s the mindset that I’m kind of trying to detect when I’m recruiting our team members. I want to see the passion, the vision, the drive, the inner drive, and the understanding of all the parameters surrounding us.” |
What do you look for in a developer candidate?
Noemi:
“Since you received the email we sent you, we’re so happy that you joined Village 88 Employer Network. But my question is, ‘Why pushed you to join?’” |
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Baptiste:
“Well, I guess we always have to get out of our comfort zone no matter what. And I think we have a lot to learn from each other. We have a lot to give and to take. That’s how a career is developed. “I always give my two cents of advice to each candidate, especially those that are completely off track. And usually, they come back to my team saying, ‘Wow, why did he give me advice? It’s so awesome. Thank you.’ You don’t need to thank me, that’s what we do. We have to elevate people. “At the end of the day, the role of the company is to elevate people. And by elevating people, we elevate ourselves. And when I see people, it’s not only our team members, it can be all our partners, our clients, or others. So let’s elevate ourselves by communicating and exchanging [ideas], and for sure, we’ll be a better version of ourselves every time we do that.” |
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Kath:
“Thank you so much for letting us have this talk with you. It’s not every day that we speak to CEOs and company owners. So, it’s a great privilege and an honor at the same time.” |
What do you look for in a developer candidate?
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Baptiste:
“Get prepared. Put yourselves in the best outfits. And it’s not literally the clothes you wear during the interview because I don’t care if you come with shorts and T-shirts. That is just a façade. No, when I talk about the outfit, just be prepared by training your brain, having knowledge, and being interested in great books. And prove it, show me, show me your best angle. “Maybe it’s wrong advice in a certain way, but fake it until you make it, sometimes. That’s what we say for startups, but it’s applicable to you. Be humble, and be sure of yourself, which is contradictory, right? But it’s a bit of confidence. Be sure of yourself when it comes to your ability to execute stuff.” |
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Noemi:
“So, guys [readers], you have to be honest with yourself. You need to put commitment also when you apply to different companies that you want to join or your dream company. It’s not only you say one thing and that you didn’t do it. You have to do it. You have to make your word work. You should have a value on that. You should have your skill set. Put confidence in yourself also.” |
Conclusion
We’re truly inspired to be an inspiration to other people so that we can elevate not just them but ourselves as well, thanks to our awesome interview with Baptiste. We hope you feel the same!
If you are interested in applying to StartechUp, you can visit their website: www.startechup.com, for their contact information in applying for their job openings.
For anyone interested in joining Village 88 Employer Network Philippines, you can visit our website, www.village88.com/ph/employer_network, to learn more and to join.
And if you’re an aspiring developer interested in kickstarting your career in web development, the registration for Batch 3 training that would start on January 2023 is open! Just visit our website, www.village88.com/ph/cs_training/, or from this form to register and reserve a slot. For inquiries, you can message us on our Facebook page.
Hope to see you there!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9lMoP-US44
