Top Tips for Hiring a Software Developer

focused-businesswoman-reading-notes-in-planner-in-cafe-4173258
Photo by Gustavo Fring from Pexels

There are a lot of amazing software developers with exceptional talents and skill-sets today. We are in a world where recruiting the tech elites is hard and difficult because, everybody wants a tech expert. There are 5 jobs for every 1 available software developer. It might be a hassle to find and hire the right software developer for your organization. But how do you get the right candidate with the necessary skill-sets that meet your company’s needs? What can you do to ensure that you find and successfully hire a qualified candidate? How can you determine and evaluate the candidate’s knowledge and experience in the field?

In hiring a software developer, here are some top tips that will help you:

  1. Find Qualified software developers

You might not entirely be able to completely set apart the unqualified candidates but, you can reduce them. It is essential to hire the best and it costs time and effort to hire a software developer. In the U.S, the average time to higher for tech positions is 35 days. It is important to have a realistic time for your hiring. Streamline your candidates through the sources you use to find them such as through referrals, personal networking through blogs and online technical postings, open-source contributors, and conferences. Get a job description template such as SEO, front-end web development, and back-end web development. Also pay more attention to your employee referral program. All these sources will increase your chances of hiring the right software developer.

  • Engage Your Candidate

After you have settled the issue of the unqualified candidates, you could engage the software developer in a screening trial period. Ensure that they are aware that the period is a medium through which you a recruiter and the software developer can get to understand each other and also to determine whether they are suitable for hire. You could also offer a series of two-weeks consulting contracts to the 5 to 10 percent of candidates who make it through your company’s arduous screening process.

  • Give Practical Tests

To hire the best software developer and see if they are the right fit for you, you can go ahead and give your candidates real tasks. Real problems from your company that will enlighten them of the kinds of projects they would be handling and embarking on in your company. As a recruiter, you can give tests personally, the in-person testing is a very efficient testing procedure.

  • Be Flexible

Make your candidates feel comfortable during the hiring process. Give them as much support as possible, this helps them with their productivity and confidence. Most candidates are asked why they turn down offers from companies and the feedback gotten from them is incredible. They say that the recruiter is too strict, not easy to communicate with, or simply difficult. Let your candidates know your work culture, expectations, and clear requirements. Also ensure you give all the necessary information needed. Communicate and keep up in touch with your candidates occasionally and then focus on the candidates to solve problems without bias or too much criticisms.

  • Evaluate Their Skill-Sets

As a recruiter, through the tests you administer, you are able to evaluate your candidate’s skill-sets and see if it is a perfect fit for your company. Look out for their problem solving skills, technical skills, communication skills, computer science knowledge, creativity, coding style, knowledge, experience, their personality and ability to work with team members should be considered. There are some software developers with a strong academic background in computer science and some that go through training and are without much education qualifications but still, they are amazingly great at software programming, coding with natural talent, and highly experienced. 44% of developers have no related academic qualifications for being a developer. You need to focus on these types of candidates if you are interested in getting the best.

  • Interview Your Candidates

To be a good recruiter, get to know your candidates learn about them from their resume or social profile. This helps a lot during the hiring process. Most software developers are highly sought after by tech companies and have a variety of options to choose from. In today’s competitive hiring environment, you need to find out what the candidates seek, their reason or motivation for considering and choosing the role of a software developer, and see how your recruiting opportunity matches their reason and give them a reason to be interested in your offer. You can make this interview an opportunity to increase your chances of making a successful offer to your candidates.

  • Close in the selected candidates

Candidates who took part in the whole hiring process, displayed real interest, passionate about software development, showed professional maturity, capabilities, and with the right skill-sets for your company can be considered for hire. You can close in such candidates and also guide them as they are recruited into your organization. Even the exceptional and highly talented can also be tense when found in a new working environment. Help them easily blend in and get settled in with other team members. You could also ask a few partners or team members to screen your candidates to avoid bias. While closing your candidates in, you can ask them for referrals, get feedback from the software developers and also at this point, most software developers are interested in knowing that they have a future and career opportunity with your company, you can assure them of that and they will be glad to work with your company.

Now, the process of hiring the best software developer may be a tough one with the added problem of the demand and supply gap of software engineers. However, with these top tips, you will be able to find software developers that best fit the role in your organization, evaluate their skills and abilities, and hire the best software developers.