Are you a solo entrepreneur looking to hire a software developer for your project? It might seem a challenge to attract and review software developers without being a developer yourself. However, if you have a solid hiring strategy, it’s not a problem to find a specialist who will fit the role and the team. 

The best remote software engineers for hire are at your fingertips, metaphorically speaking. All you need to do is to develop a hiring plan. For that, you are to answer several important questions: 

• Do you or your co-founder have a tech background?

• What technologies will be used?

• What team do you need to build, and who runs the development process?

• What kind of engagement from a developer do you need?

• Where to find a software developer online/offline?

• How to hold interviews with candidates?

• How long does it usually take to hire a specialist? etc.

At the outset, you also need to honestly assess your experience in building IT products. Hiring developers directly or as freelancers is the hardest way to go if you lack relevant experience. Also, direct hiring might impose a considerable tax burden on your company. These are the reasons why opting for a software agency is the best choice:

• startups can benefit from agencies due to the speed and quality of hire
• small and mid-sized businesses can get corporate-level relations and top teams
• entrepreneurs can get rid of worries associated with hiring developers and controlling the development process

And now, let’s consider some of the above questions closer. 

Your ideal work model: Your developer being a jack-of-all-trades?

First and foremost, you need to determine the main programming language required for your project. As ill luck would have it, this task might become one of the most challenging ones for a non-tech-savvy headhunter without any technical background. We understand your worries about this challenge and will talk about it in detail in one of our forthcoming articles. 

You also have to determine what kind of engagement in a developer part you need for your current project: freelance, remote, in-house, full-time, part-time, or a combination of these types. The choice depends on the project characteristics, timeline, and the most important factor – the budget you have at your disposal. 

Know thy places: Where to find a software developer online/offline

As for the methods of searching for a software developer, you can undertake the following steps:

1. Browse for suitable candidates via Google search with the help of relevant keywords, e.g., “hire a software developer” or “find a software developer”.
2. Visit numerous freelance workplaces, websites, and communities created for outsourcers: UpWork, YouTeam, Toptal, Guru, Freelancer, Remote, CodementorX, Fiverr, and many others. However, you must remember that hiring with the help of these websites has its pros and cons. 
3. Look at B2B portals: platforms like Clutch, Wadline, VenturePack, or Goodfirms are useful in finding info on reliable contractors offering workforce hiring services. 
4. Use the LinkedIn network – an indispensable headhunting tool. Even if you aren’t a professional recruiter, the resource can offer multiple insights on finding new talents for your project. 
5. Address the tech community. First, you can post in different tech communities (tech groups on social media, specialized forums, industry blogs, Quora, Reddit, StackOverflow, Github, Hashnode, CodeProject, etc.). Then, you can go deeper and visit some tech events, hackathons, developer conferences, and tech meetups.  Well-performing developers are also featured on coding challenge websites, such as TopCoder, Coderbyte, HackerRank, CodeChef, and HireVue. What is more, these challenges can be used in your tests and interviews.
6. Ask your family, friends, colleagues, and employees for feedback, reviews, and references. Asking for referrals and networking helps a lot in hiring top software developers. 
7. Get in touch with the students of the computer science departments at universities, training courses, or programming bootcamps. 
8. Hire a developer from a well-chosen team of top-tier specialists in Sonerim. Our software engineering company offers full-cycle design and development services of any complexity. The core expertise of our top specialists is in Java, JavaScript (React, Angular, Vue, and Node, to name just a few), and mobile technologies. The Sonerim team will complete your project on the fly. 

‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’: Holding interviews with candidates

If you decide on hiring an unknown freelance developer on a platform for the first time, make sure your approach is consistent. First, you are to prescreen and shortlist the candidates who fit the needs of your business. You need to analyze the resumes of all candidates and determine their strong and weak points, experience, proficiency, soft skills, and personal traits. 

After this procedure, you can conduct interviews with all or some of them. You can also offer some tests to screen their tech skills, for instance, using HireVue coding challenges. During actual interviews with your finalists, you can ask additional questions to see the full picture. 

Duration of a hiring process

The procedure of finding and hiring a software developer requires some time, so you need to be patient. Time limits depend on the seniority level and tech skills of the specialist you’re looking for. It can vary from 2-3 to 8-9 weeks. If we speak about larger companies with teams of developers, for instance, in the US, it takes around 39 days to hire a software development engineer.* 

In Ukraine, it takes an average of 5-7 weeks to hire a senior developer with a good command of Java, and 2-4 weeks to close junior and middle positions for a specialist proficient in this widespread technology.** 

Source: Sytoss.com

The bright side for a hirer is that working with a software development service company like Sonerim is much faster: you can find a good, reasonably-priced candidate in just a few days. Why? Because such companies are hiring constantly and already have pre-screened candidates, or somebody inside a company is sitting on a bench and is eager to start working on your project immediately.

Additional tips on hiring a software developer:

• The best countries to hire developers are Ukraine, Latvia, Poland, India, Taiwan, and Argentina. The major reasons for their enrollment in the top list are the IT education quality in these countries, the cost of development, similar time zone, and a common language of communication (English). 
• You need to establish open and efficient communication and build trust from the very beginning to get optimal results from both sides of the hiring coin.

Hiring a software developer can be less daunting and tricky as compared with your possible impression from the get-go. Employ the above-mentioned online and offline solutions and tools to find your dream specialist in the global talent pool. May the Workforce be with you!

Sources:

* https://www.dice.com/career-advice/15-hardest-fill-tech-jobs-big-tech-hubs

** https://www.sytoss.com/blog/you-want-to-hire-software-developers-how-long-would-it-take-in-ukraine/ 

No comments found for this post.