Hiring a Remote Web Developer

Part One — Pitfalls to avoid during the hiring process.

At Code Enigma we’re fully distributed, so not only are our web developers remote-based, everyone is. Interviewing, hiring, onboarding and post-onboarding are all done online, often from different countries.

There are some pitfalls that can easily be avoided to ensure successful recruitment.

As with any pool of candidates, some will be right for the role, and some won’t. The skills aren’t particularly aligned to any specific country; it’s about individual talent.

The best thing to do is be vigilant when checking the candidate’s qualifications. A dev should have a decent and open portfolio of projects that prove s/he can code in the languages they say they can. Being able to talk to previous clients about their work really boosts your confidence. Don’t feel too harsh for doing proper due diligence. You need to know if you want to take the dev to interview stage.

Here at Code Enigma, we’ll run the dev through a technical test. It shows us who can walk the walk.

By going through this research process, you’re putting up a safety net for yourself as a company that stops you falling victim to any code-breaking in their first few weeks. You already know what they’re capable of and experienced in doing. You’ll know what projects they should be able to handle.

It isn’t all down to the developer though; they’ll only be successful if their onboarding is right. This is critical.

You can’t expect someone to jump in on day one and go at it, even if they know the language. All new developers need a period of familiarisation of projects, with their new colleagues and how the company functions.

Mistakes surrounding hiring the wrong developer:

1. Lack of documented company information like values, objectives and goals. A dev needs to know the wider business to understand where their role fits in, not simply “please code this for this project”. If you’d like your dev to contribute (and we do, because we serve the open source world), you need to give them some creative space.
2. Conversely, it’s possible to give your developer too much information and give then analysis paralysis. Give them the company essentials mentioned above, but also allow them appropriate time to read the rules, policies, procedures, and all the small print.
3. The developer not having a buddy in the early days. Ideally, pair them with someone who knows the ropes and has been the head developer on a number of projects.

Avoid the mistakes of hiring a bad developer

Having these three things planned before hiring begins is the key to success. This can be broken down into chunks that you, as the hiring organisation, can tackle at the right time, namely during the hiring process, onboarding and post-onboarding.

We’ll talk about these in future posts. For now, think about the idea on a high level and compare it to how you hire any remote staff.

If you’d like to learn more about Code Enigma and how we function as a fully-remote company, check out our website.