How to Hire Good Software Developers: 7 Useful Tips That Work

Businesses invite developers to fulfill various tasks like website maintenance, additional functionality implementation, CRM system development, or the development of a mobile app aimed at solving a variety of objectives that a company may try to reach.

Within a highly competitive environment, businesses should pay maximum attention to creating quality products and services. However, you cannot achieve good results, lacking good developers. Moreover, it is not so simple to hire good software developers as it may seem at first. Therefore, we have decided to share some useful tips to help you find a good software engineer for your project.

The article will be useful for both running business owners and startup founders who want to assemble a team from scratch or reinforce an existing one.

1. Choose a Collaboration Model

You can choose out of several basic cooperation models, based on your business needs and capabilities:

• hiring developers as full-time employees;
• cooperation with freelancers;
• a dedicated team;
• project outsourcing.

In most cases, the best option in terms of price/quality ratio and possible risks mitigation would be an outsourcing model and cooperation with a remote team. You can find more detail in our article “In-House vs. Outsourced Software Development: What to Choose?”

2. If You Are a Non-Technical Founder, Invite an IT Professional

You and the applicant will find common ground easier if you treat each other as professionals from the very start. It will not do you any good pretending you are an IT expert if, actually, you are not. You may find it better to assess those potential applicant’s strengths that correspond to your expertise, for example, soft skills. For technical evaluation, it would be better to invite an expert in the relevant area.

If you invite a technician to interview a potential applicant and help you make a hiring decision, you may find a balance between the right decision and a potential disaster. Moreover, having several people to interview an applicant may efficiently exclude any biased attitudes.

3. Study the Applicant’s Portfolio and Experience

If you are going to cooperate with an agency, make sure to ask them to show their portfolio. In case you hire an independent software engineer, you may want to ask the applicant to show you projects they have already completed, tell what problems they faced, and how they resolved them. Pay attention to how the person talks about their work. A professional who loves their job can speak about their projects for hours.

4. Hire Experience, Not Cheapness

Large companies can afford to hire completely inexperienced employees, assign them to team leaders, and raise their skill level over time. A small company or startup does not have sufficient resources to do so.

Good developers provide expensive services, but it is not worth skimping on software developers. In practical terms, experienced developers work faster and sometimes cost less if you add up all project expenses, its enhancement, bug fixing, and testing.

5. Look for Talents in Right Places

It is also difficult to hire software developers because good professionals are almost always engaged in some work. They either work for other companies and startups or are actively executing freelance orders. It is unlikely you will find some place where you can simply look through resumes and choose someone from the list.

You may want to choose some right places to look for software engineers. Here are a few options to take note of:

• freelance online platforms;
• online communities like Github and Stack Overflow;
• recommendations from other technicians;
• Google search, requesting “custom software development services”;
• conferences, hackathons, and other technical events.

6. Be Careful with Test Tasks

A perfect way to know if an applicant is right for the position you offer is to ask them to resolve a small but real-life issue. The specialist’s approach to solving the problem will allow you to comprehend if it is good for you.

It is a win situation for the developer too, as they get an idea of ​​the problems and technologies they will have to deal with within your company. That is especially true for startups.

However, you may want to be careful with test assignments. A too simple one can significantly lower the entry bar and allow you to hire applicants with insufficient experience to work on your project. At the same time, a too complicated task can scare off highly qualified specialists who just do not have enough time to complete a long test task.

7. You Do Not Always Need a Rock Star

Many companies try to hire the best, proactive employees with extensive experience, etc. However, it is better to choose based on the tasks you will set for the developer hired. Unless AI development or spacecraft launch control systems are on this list, you may not need a superstar.

If your project presumes a collection of forms that accept data from users, process it, and return the result, you need the most common software developer. Most likely, any employee with several years of experience will perfectly cover all your needs.

To Summarize

Finding and hiring good software developers and interviewing them is not an easy task that requires some preparation. Technicians are primarily evaluated by their actual skills. However, you have to keep in mind other important points like communication and teamwork skills.

Some companies may have a hard time solving the problem of hiring high-quality software engineers on their own. At times, it is much easier just to trust professionals and outsource your project. If you are looking for a reliable technology partner, contact us, and we will be able to offer you the best solution to your business challenges.