WordPress all the way…

These days, we are doing lot of development work in WordPress.. and infact, we are using WordPress as CMS for many of our sites.

In the earlier development phase, we started with Textpattern, then we moved to modx (At this point of time, we were using WordPress just for the blogs) but after WordPress 2.7 we have actively started using WordPress as CMS. We tried Joomla and Drupal but for us, WordPress was the way to go as it allowed us to stretch it as we wanted.. (Though Textpattern and modx too allowed us but WordPress community is more active, more plugins and more advanced)

The recent examples include, website for the band Raghu Dixit Project and for artist management firm called Only Much Louder.

Our work mainly included slicing up the designed files, create neatly coded HTML files and WordPress integration. We have used custom fields for some of the blocks and also used some plugins to display required output. (e.g. Twitter tweets)

We have couple of WordPress based sites in the pipeline which includes, heavy AJAX usage and modifications.. we will put them up here at the right time

We are going to cover more portfolio sites in this category in the course of time..

That’s about it..

Go Mumbai Indians go..

We are in full IPL mood these days.. everyone decided to go for IPL match at local sports bar, Bond Bar.. but eventually we 4 (Nilesh, Amit, Dilip and Me) – all Mumbai Indian fans – went for the match.. (Other guys could not make it for some or other issues)… and yea.. my wife, Megha too joined us.. but she was having her worst time ever, as she is not at all into cricket and we were making her sit and watch the match haha..

I must say, we had great time out there cheering for Mumbai Indians.. the other guys surely missed it.. (and we missed them too.. )

Had planned to click some pics but like always, I forgot to get the camera but I will make a point to click some pics next time we go.. (hopefully for the final match..)

That’s about it..

Go Mumbai Indians go.. get that trophy for us… (so that we get another chance to celebrate )

Display wordpress data on non-wordpress site..

I am sure many of the WordPress coders must be aware about this but this is for the ones who are new to WordPress and wish to display data from the blog on the non-wordpress based website.

I personally feel, WordPress has many hidden capabilities and this is one of them..

It’s pretty simple, all you need to do is, include wp-blog-header.php file in your page and you have all WordPress functions ready to be baked

include ('/path/to/wp-blog-header.php'); 

Replace /path/to/ with the actual path of your wp-blog-header.php file. You can see real life implementation on our site’s home page.

We are currently working on couple of projects for which we have used WordPress functions extensively.. and so far, the outcome is fantastic

Few Interview & ResumeTips

Well, this post is highly inspired by my previous post Interviews interviews and more interviews. So, without wasting much of the time, let me get back to the point and list down some of the tips which I think every employee should keep in mind…

Also, I am not going to point of all those tips which you see on zillions of job related websites. My points are mainly related to your skills and keeping things simple.

1. Don’t write too much.. I have seen many people having lengthy resume, they basically list out all the projects they have done so far. But this is not the way things should be. Your resume should outline your skills not the number of your projects. The resume should contain the list of projects which you think can show your skills. 

   No one bothers to go through all the pages and there are high chances that the recruiter might miss out looking at some of the important projects. So, keep it short and simple..

2. Mention only what you know.. Well, this one is pretty common.. in more than 75% of the cases.. we see long list of languages or applications in the resume. I have seen people having lists like “CSS, HTML, PHP, ASP, ASP.NET, C, C++, VB, JAVA” but when I ask them questions about any of the languages mentioned, they simply reply saying, “I had learnt this in my college curriculum or at some institute”. Many people mention huge list of applications (like WordPress, OSCommerce, Joomla, Drupal etc..) but again, when we ask something about it.. they simply do not know anything beyond installing it..So, the point is.. mention only what you know.. it’s better to write just CSS,HTML and PHP if you know only these 3. When you write a huge list, it means you know these language and you can answer questions related to these languages.. and if you fail to answer, it will create bad impression. But if you have mentioned what you know, the questions asked will be limited to your mentioned skills and you can answer the questions confidently.
3. KISS… haha No, I didn’t mean the actual kiss.. but always follow KISS principle.. i.e. Keep it Simple Stupid. Don’t try to make a fancy resume and add add too many colors, don’t add too many design elements. Just keep things clear to read.. no fancy fonts, user readable font size.
4. We don’t want your personal info… I have seen many candidates having their passport size photos in their resume. Many even mention their passport number etc.. But we don’t need these. Having photos are generally a good idea if you are applying for a modeling related job but in IT industry.. we are more concerned about the work Also, we don’t need your passport number.. we just need your email address and contact details.. nothing more apart from these

And here are some tips before you go for the Interview..

(more…)

Interviews interviews and more interviews

Yeah, that’s right.. we are on recruiting spree, we have been hunting for Sr. PHP Programmers for quite sometime.. have been interviewing lot of people.. but the sad part is, the outcome is not a good as expected.. (though it is better than the last time)

No doubt, there are many guys looking for the job.. but the problem is, majority of the guys do not fit the bill.. the reason? Well, they are actually applying for the wrong post.. their knowledge do not reflect what is generally written in their resume..

Recently we came across very horrid examples.. Couple of guys walked in for the interview with some shining projects in their resume but when we asked them basic questions… they started fumbling.. We also got variety of crowd who tried to explain us why their incorrect answers are actually correct.. some even tried to inflate their current salary figured and started asking for huge amount of salary..

We get frustrated many times, thinking why people do not provide correct information on their resume.

The point of this post is to pass the message that whenever you are going for the interview or preparing your resume, make sure you are aware what post you are applying for and what you are writing.

I guess, I should have another post lined up with the tips or something.. (May be I will have it in sometime)

Finally we have a blog..

Oh yes.. finally after being so so so lazy.. we have decided to start a blog..

So, what’s gonna be here?

Well, you can expect lot of things, ranging from personal scoop to tutorials by team members and lot more.. 

The blog is actually an attempt to be more close to our clients and to share knowledge with the world.. 

So, that’s about it.. we will get posting soon.. and yea… will get the custom theme designed too… (for now, we will stick to this theme..)

Cheers,
Deep