Understand the connection between different structures and technologies
When you are looking for a great engineer, it isn’t about searching through CVs to find the right one. You want your candidate to have a good understanding of the required development tools and technology stack. To do this, you need to look at the entire picture of a candidate’s experience. You need to see whether their skills were something that developed over time, what were the projects they took part in, and what new tools or ways of accomplishing tasks have they learned during their time in the workforce. Only with a complete analysis of their skill sets will you be able to recognize if the candidate has the required learning capabilities and expertise you need.
Write your job description with as much information about the project as possible
To bring in the best candidates, you need a job description that will entice them. It needs to be something that not only piques their interest but in a way they feel they can provide value. Describe your project in as much detail as you can: the ins and outs, how it benefits your target audience, what its potential is for the future, etc. It is essential to highlight whether the project is short or long-term and what career opportunities taking part in the project will provide them with.
What are the project tech requirements and goals
Creating a list of the technical specifications and the project goals will help you in communicating the requirements of a project to your candidate. Some things to include are:
- Overall business goals and vision
- Actions your team will need to take
- The milestones for every goal
- Who your target market is
- What the tech requirements are
- What scaling strategies you will be using
- What the overall budget is
Be active in your search
Completing an active search means defining the main keywords that search will be working with. You also want to include country, age, and the level of experience of the candidate. Once you have these all organized, you can then began sorting through applications.
Candidates should have relevant experience
When choosing a candidate, make sure to pay attention to their experience. You want to know what the tools are they have worked with before, what the languages they have used are, and what projects they have worked on in the past.
If you belong to a niche industry, you want to find a developer who has knowledge and experience within your niche field. An example of this is if your product is a fintech product. Your team needs to be familiar with both the specific requirements and financial terms of fintech projects.
Conduct an interview
Meeting with your candidate either face to face or over Skype is ideal. It is also a good idea to have a technical interviewer brought in. You can consider exploring some of these topics in your discussion:
- What is the candidate’s experience with tech stack, and what frameworks and languages have they used before
- What are the projects they have previously worked on, and with what team size, and tech stack?
- What are some of the obstacles and challenges they have face when working on projects, and how did they overcome them.
Hiring a developer is crucial in moving your company forward. You don’t want to hire someone who is inexperienced and doesn’t know what they are doing. It just ends up wasting time and money. That’s why it’s so important to check the candidate’s knowledge on a detailed task test that will bring their developer skills to light. It will show their capability and ability to deal with more complex tasks.
Don’t ignore soft skills
Here are some of the soft skills that a developer should have. Using an interview to flush out these skills is a great way to see the kind of person a candidate is:
- Are they able to communicate well:
What are the speaking manner and listening capability of the candidate? Make sure to also see if the candidate has any questions to ask during the interview. This means they aren’t afraid to ask for clarification, a big plus when it comes to being in the middle of the development process. - Can they work in a team:
Find out about the candidate’s experience working in a team and what role they played in the development process. By doing so, you will learn whether the candidate is an individual worker or a team player. - Are they motivated:
Make sure to ask the candidate what motivated them to apply for the job. You want to find out if it was for a salary, career growth, or just an interest in trying something new. Each answer they give will let you know what is possible to expect in return from them. - Are they good with time management:
Time management is an essential component in completing projects. Find out if your candidate manages their time well, can adjust their priorities as need be, can set goals, and can organize their communication well.
