Show:

How to Hire a Developer: The 5 Essential Steps

September 3, 2021 Business, Career

With the tech industry growing rapidly, hiring tech developers who can add genuine value to your team has become more challenging. When hiring a developer, something to consider is that not every candidate will be a good fit for your business, as each programmer has their work style preferences, industry experience, and skills. If you fail to hire the right individuals, you will almost certainly face opportunity costs that limit your growth potential.

The key to building a strong recruitment foundation is to do your homework, understand why hiring developers is difficult, find out how to locate them, and encourage them to find you. Continue reading to learn how to set up a successful recruitment strategy to employ the most deserving developers. 

Establish your employer brand to encourage developers to come to you 

Due to the high competition in the software developed market, the leading developers pick and choose their projects. To recruit the best developers for your organization, you must stand out from the crowd; not only must people recognize you, but they must also desire to work for you due to your strong employer brand. Below are a few tips to speed up your hiring process:

  • Optimize your career page: When contemplating a job application, candidates look at the company’s mission statement and employee reviews. By adding these crucial details to your career page, you will begin to attract top candidates for all open positions.
  • Craft unique job descriptions: The top job descriptions are the ones that are to the point and that provide well-defined roles and responsibilities to the applicant so that they are well aware of what they are signing up for.
  • Create high-quality content and share it on social media to attract talent: Social media is one of the first places applicants start looking for companies to work for. Therefore, your company’s social media account should always be on the top of its game so that you can attract the best talent. 

Know where to look

When a company hires web programmers, they are hiring a technology partner who will become an integral part of their organization for several years, offering continuous technical support and developing additional website enhancements. This is why it is important to employ a developer with caution, as a bad hire can negatively impact the whole team and lower productivity. So, how do you go about finding the ideal individuals for your company? Here are a few things you can do to improve your recruiting practices:

  • Freelance websites: Freelance sites like Upwork and Fiverr help connect with developers who work full-time yet have side projects. These are people you might be able to hire on a full-time basis in the future. 
  • Job Boards: you join employment sites such as ai-jobs.net, Dice.com, and LinkedIn and start investing in short advertising campaigns to target people when surfing the web, depending on the job board you join.
  • Talent networks: Talent networks such as Toptal, Gun.io, Hired, HireClub, and TechLadies are the best place to look for developers as most candidates looking for a job are active on there. Check to see whether these networks have online communities on social media sites such as Facebook.
  • Developer communities: Spend time surveying sites like Github and Stack Overflow to learn more about developer communities. Focus on the questions that developers are asking and the challenges that people are tackling similar to your company’s requirements. Seek advice from your hiring manager or development team to learn more about any patterns that might be worth keeping an eye on. 
  • IT contractors’ marketplaces: There are several IT talent marketplaces where you can find IT contractors.  Most often, these platforms have large networks of qualified experts that have already worked on a number of development projects. These seasoned professionals have gained experience from working on multiple projects and can save you time and money. 

Technological advances have helped companies completely transform their hiring process, with many organisations using recruitment software to speed up the vetting of applicants and managing the interview process.

Evaluate applicants by conducting personal interviews 

Start conducting personal interviews after receiving a list of resumes from individuals with the experience and talents that fit your project’s needs. Whether in person or over video call, make sure to assess the candidates’ technical skills and expertise and their personal and professional characteristics. Furthermore, do not judge an applicant only based on their resumes. Another vital factor in assessing is that the developers you’re recruiting must have the correct attitude for the project and the personality to work well with your in-house team. 

Test the candidate’s problem-solving skills 

One way to test the applicant’s problem-solving skills is to have them complete one or more coding challenges on sites like CodeWars, Coderbyte, or CodeFights. However, if you are not using tools, then another way to test the developers on their technical skills is to ask them to guide you through the details of how something they created works. Additionally, you can also ask them to work on a real problem from your company’s past. By demonstrating the type of project the developers will be working on, you will better know if the applicant is a good fit for the projects they will be expected to work on. 

Seal the deal by offering what the candidate deserves

After testing the candidates and finding the one who is the right fit for the job, you will have to make a compelling offer to the candidate that they can’t turn down. To reduce the chances of the candidate turning down your job offer, keep in mind that you will have to offer deserving pay. If you are hiring a highly skilled and experienced developer, then be prepared to pay a premium. However, one of the most compelling motivations for people to change jobs is the possibility of advancement in their careers. Thus, besides offering compelling pay, you can also lay out a strategy for them to progress through stages in their career in programming and move up within your organization in the job.

Conclusion

Today, having excellent developers plays a significant part in every company overall success. You can instantly enhance your recruiting efforts and start bringing in the top tech talent your firm need by focusing on the areas where you’re lacking. Also, please don’t overlook the value of the web developer’s technical skills, since they significantly impact the project’s success. Regardless of your company’s size or industry, the steps mentioned above can assist you in developing a reputation for your organization and creating an effective recruitment strategy.