If you’re a project manager at your company or have just established your startup business and are now looking to get started with your cloud journey, you must be aware of the nitty-gritty of project management and delivery.
Project management involves working on several fronts — managing project infrastructure, striking a balance between development expectations and outcomes, defining quality standards, adapting to the latest market trends, etc.
The road to software development is not as smooth as it seems to be. From managing capacity during peak hours to launching your business in cloud, you will need the best of software developers to achieve your business goals.
Whether you want to extend your current software development team’s capacity or want to hire a contract developer to build your cloud application, you will need to get yourself acquainted with the process of hiring ace software developers.
Hiring software developers is not just about going through some CVs, technical certifications, and developer portfolios, rather the process is deeply rooted.
The blog talks about the challenges of hiring software developers, the qualities of a good software developer, adopting the right vetting process, and where to find the best classes of agile software developers.
Challenges of hiring software developers
According to an Undercover Recruiter report, bad hires can cost a company $240,000 in expenses (inclusive of costs related to pay and retention). Not only in monetary terms, but a bad hire can cost your projects and affect the entire productivity of your software development team.
Hiring the right talent is as crucial as getting the right clients for your business.
The quality of your product will only be as good as the people you choose to build it.
Developer hiring is challenging because a good developer can be many times more productive than his peers. So, it becomes extremely important to choose wisely.
The productivity multiple between one developer and the other is the primary reason that makes developer hiring a crucial and business-altering decision.
Another significant challenge is the recruiting and selection criteria. Do you select candidates purely on the technical minutiae? What about soft skills like — whether they are a good team player or not? Are they able to think creatively and innovatively? There are no criteria to define these benchmark qualities of a good developer.
Getting Started: Hiring the best software developers
Undeniably, the technical acumen of the candidate is the numero uno quality that you might look for while filling a software developer role. But they are not the most important element in the vetting process.
A candidate’s technical proficiency should go beyond the requirements of a particular language or technology. So, instead of just focusing on one aspect of the job, you should also consider the candidate’s overall technical strength, creative-thinking, and problem-solving skills.
Remember, agility and innovation is the key to survive in a competitive landscape.
Whether you’re hiring developers for a full-time role or looking for contract or temporary remote developers, you should follow a systematic approach to identify potentially qualified candidates.
You should remember a simple golden rule — if you hire A-level developers, chances are they will recommend A-level developers to you. Why? It’s because quality people tend to work with other quality people only. If you choose B-level developers, they will recommend C-level developers to you. Why? Maybe to look better in comparison to them.
Also, the focus should not be on finding one rockstar developer, rather build a team of equally competitive counterparts. Why settle for a spiderman if you can get a whole team of avengers.
This is because, the best software is not built by one person, rather it is a team effort.
Where to find quality developers?
If you’re a Marvel fan, you probably remember how hard Nick Fury tries to build a team of Avengers. Similarly, if you want to build a great software development team or want to hire one, you must look for him religiously.
While referrals are one of the best ways to hire software developers, you can also consider other effective resources.
- Technical blogs : Having an online discussion forum or open-source community where you can share top technical blogs or share interesting things, is a great way to connect with top-notch developers.
An agile developer is always on a lookout to improve his knowledge and even share it with others. You can also explore popular programming discussion forums to find the best developer for your project. - Tech conferences : Popular developer conferences and technology events are a great source for finding exceptional talents. If you can’t join in-person, you can also attend online conferences and events.
- Open-source project contributors : Online project-hosting sites like GitHub that allows developers to share their open-source projects, is also a great platform for contacting emerging and established technical talent. But remember that these platforms are not designed for sourcing candidates, hence find a less direct way to interact with the developers.
- Hackathons : Hackathons are one of the most exciting developer events around the world. Companies and big tech firms host hackathons to get out-of-the-box and innovative ideas. Participants are mostly expected to build a project from scratch or solve a challenging coding problem.
While the above resources are a great way to find and contact great developers, they require your time and attention. Probably, the one thing that a project manager cannot guarantee.
When you are looking to hire remote developers or temporary developers for your short-term project needs, you might want to consider a less time-consuming way. This is where international freelancing sites and third-party websites come in focus.
Let’s understand this through the example of Workfall. Workfall is a platform exclusively built for bridging the gap between companies’ digital transformation goals and AWS professionals. The one-stop source to hire the best AWS professionals for your projects. The candidates are screened through a rigorous process where they are vetted for their technical expertise, AWS certifications, experience in building AWS apps, etc.
So, before a candidate is onboarded, they are interviewed by tech and behavioral experts to assess not only their technical strengths but behavioral aspects like work ethics, commitment, and communication skills as well. This ensures that the client gets to connect with the best in the industry and get started right away.
Wrapping-Up
Hiring developers is not a one-time process. To ensure that your business remains on the top of technology absorption, you must continuously re-evaluate and tweak your hiring approach.
Though candidate’s technical strength and foundation is one of the must-have skills, it should not be the only deciding criterion. Soft skills like adaptability, team-performance, agility, problem-solving, critical thinking, etc. are also important.
To hire the best talents, you must always be on a lookout for the best developers and programmers. Attend developer conferences, actively participate in hackathons and open source project sites, and more.
This blog is part of our effort towards building a knowledgeable and kick-ass tech community. At Workfall, we strive to provide the best tech and pay opportunities to AWS-certified talents. If you’re looking to work with global clients, build kick-ass products, and also make big bucks doing so, give it a shot at workfall.com/partner today.