In a market where there are five developer jobs for every one developer, knowing how to hire developers can be a challenge. Especially when you are battling against huge tech companies with seemingly endless budgets.
Here are a few steps you can take to help your company hire the best developers out there.
1. Hire slowly
If you are trying to build a team of developers, begin by offering two to three-week contracts where they work on a single project and depending on the outcome, they may be offered a full-time role.
Another reason you want to hire developers slowly is so that you can find the very best available. If you start by hiring one or two A-level developers, they will want to work with other A-level developers. They will recommend other people that they have worked with in the past and they will work to build a strong team of developers.
If you hire several B or C-level developers, they won’t be able to build a team of anyone except other B and C-level developers.
2. Build a team
Be careful of using your entire developer budget on one very qualified person. If you want a development team that will take your business forward, you will need a team of people with different experiences who can work together to do that.
If you give only one or two people all the power and then hire more people with much less experience, you risk the possibility that if one of those people leaves, you are left with a huge hole in your team. You need balance and a sense of equality in the development team that you create.
3. Hire for talent, not longevity
When you hire a web developer that is talented, they don’t often stay in one place for very long. The best thing you can do for your business is to hire the best developers for the projects you have on hand and understand that they may leave the company at any time.
The developers that you want for your business are the ones that want a job where they will grow as engineers and learn new skills that they can use to develop the very best software for your company. Then do that again somewhere else.
4. Find a fit for your company culture
While you may want to hire developers who look the best on paper, they may not be the best developers for your company. Just like any other role you hire for in your business, you want someone who can be part of the team, work well with the other departments, and won’t let their ego get in the way of getting their job done.
5. Use your company size as an asset
Most experienced developers know what it’s like to work for large companies that have a lot of bureaucracy and red tape to make any changes. Being a small to mid-sized company is a large selling point when it comes to hiring the best developers.
As a smaller company, developers will be able to make a difference in the company that they can see and that will be longer lasting than in large tech companies. Being a smaller company also means that a developer’s role will be bigger than it would be a huge company where they would be one of many.
6. Sell them on the projects
When a developer is looking for a new job, they are often looking for a new challenge. They want a different project that will allow them to build their skills and work on different tasks.
When you are looking to hire developers, be sure to make clear exactly what projects they will be working on and how this will benefit them on their career path. Explain how this project will help not only the company but the community that it is serving.
7. Go to where they are
If you want to scout the best developers in your area, you need to go to them.
- Hackathons: These are events where developers and computer programmers get together to create new software. They are generally just for educational or social purposes and they usually have a specific focus, so be sure to attend one that is similar to the projects you are working on.
- Universities: Contact CS professors at universities in your area and ask for recommendations. Sometimes giving students a chance to shine on a project can be even more beneficial to your company than hiring someone with more experience. Nowadays, many university students have coded for years, so they are just as experienced as someone who has been out of university for several years.
- Open source contributors: Open source projects are becoming incredibly common at different companies. You can look up these open source programs and see who has contributed to them. This gives you a huge list of programmers and developers who you can able to contact for future projects.
- Blogs: Many developers have their own personal blogs now where they discuss different topics that interest them as well as share projects that they are currently working on. These are great places to search for potential developers because it allows you to get to know them and their work before you speak to them.
- Conferences: Go to different software development conferences in your city as well as surrounding cities that pertain to the projects you are working on. Most conferences are specific to a topic and can be a great place to network with potential hires.
- Freelance websites: Many experienced web developers have gone freelance and work on projects on a contract basis. If you are happy to hire someone for short periods of time, but with a lot of experience and autonomy, this may be the best place to look.
8. Start with a test project
When you first hire a new developer, whether you’ve found them cold or they have been recommended by other employees or friends, you should give them a test project that lasts a short period of time before giving them a full-time contract.
You can do this by first offering them a contract for a single project, you can bring people on as consultants to start, or you can write a clause into their employment contract that states they are on a probation period for the first project.
When to hire an app developer
If you are beginning to wonder whether you will need to hire an app developer, there are a few things to consider.
1. Can you code yourself?
This is an important step to consider when you are beginning to develop an app for your business. Can you do it yourself? If not, do you have the time to learn to do it yourself?
It is widely known that the programming language required to build apps for Android and Apple are some of the hardest to learn. If you have zero experience with programming, then you need to hire an app developer. If you do have some experience with coding, you can still expect to spend an additional six months of full-time study learning the programming language required to make an app.
2. Do you have design experience?
If you answered yes to the first question, you should then ask yourself if you have any experience in design. Apps are very different than software design. They are used on small devices like cell phones and tablets. This means you need to consider font, layout, colors, and the ability to engage the user quickly.
If you don’t have any experience with design, you should hire an app developer.
3. Can you afford an app developer?
Hiring an experienced app developer who will build it from the bottom up can cost more than $10,000. If you are a startup looking to take your app off the ground, this amount of money may not be possible.
There are other options if you do have some experience with coding or design. You can hire someone to build the skeleton of the app and you can take over the rest of the project. This can cost anywhere from $1,500 to $5,000.
It’s important to consider what your assets are at the start of your app development. If you have much more time than money, studying and learning code may be the better option. If you are short on time and willing to front the cash for your app, then hiring an app developer may be the best option for you.
