Tips for hiring great software engineers

At the very beginning of any startup, you face a number of serious tasks, the solution to which the future of your project depends on whether it will be successful or fail.

The search for the development team is just one of such important, fundamental issues that need to be addressed with the most seriousness and knowledge of the matter, because these experts will implement your ideas, and the future of your project depends on their skills.

Despite the fact that there are now quite a lot of developers of different levels and qualifications, finding someone who will fit the requirements of the project is not so easy. Here are some steps needed to find and hire good software engineers.

Step 1. Job description

At this stage, the goal is to bring to your project the attention of developers who are suitable for you. To do this, you need a simple, but interesting, enticing description of the position.

The content of the text should be well considered, provide all information, linguistically fit the company and convince the reader. You do not have much time for persuasion, because even the title must arouse the interest. An example is the headline: “Junior Python Software Developer for Virtual Reality Application”. With a concise list of experience levels, technology, position and main focus, the applicant can see at a glance whether he finds the offer suitable or not.

In the first part it is especially important that the reader quickly finds the right information: what are the key data, the unconditional prerequisites for skills and what are only desirable plus points? Furthermore, the task should be clearly described and clearly define the areas of responsibility. Money plays also an important role — therefore, the salary should be stated in any case. This promotes transparency and eliminates candidates whose salary expectations exceed your budget.

The second part will highlight why your own business is special and it pays developers to work for it. You have to draw an authentic picture of the future workplace. If necessary, you can add links to photos and blog posts, videos. This allows the applicant to get an idea of ​​the corporate culture and potential colleagues.

Finally, it’s worth highlighting the additional benefits that await the new employee: continuing education, sports, tech meetups and other opportunities that can be offered to employees.

Step 2. Search

Now it is the time to search for candidates.

You can do that:

• At specialized sites. You want to find professionals who have years of experience in development, a large stack of technologies used, as well as examples of projects similar to yours. Therefore, you need to start your search from specialized sites, where qualified IT specialists offer their services.
• In personal communication: try to transfer this information through your professional and personal contacts.
• Events — hackathons. Attend professional events, and you will see that quite a few people are looking for exactly what you intend to offer.
• Communicating with students. Try to attend career days organized by universities for the specialties you need, post ads on bulletin boards at universities, study online resources on which students of specialties you are interested in can search for a job.

Step 3. Interview

Let us suppose that you have a circle of those professionals who are interested in you. How to choose the best? If you can’t meet everyone in person, do an interview on Skype.

Before the conversation, everything revolves around planning. Inform the applicant early on the date, time and place, who will lead the conversation.

By the way, if you really have found a dream candidate, you should also be flexible on the day of the week — it could be difficult for executives, for example, to free up a few hours during the week to introduce themselves. Remedy there creates a weekend or a meeting after work.

Above all, the impression counts here — in both directions. Don`t be late and disorganized, good candidates will be scared off such a leader.

In addition to the obvious questions about skills, experience, portfolios, code examples, schedules and methods of remuneration, try to ask this:

• If I talk with your previous employers, what would they say about your strengths and weaknesses?
• Are you working on your own project or on other employers?
• What sites and blogs do you read regularly?
• What will you do if you encounter a technical difficulty? Do you have any familiar programmers who can help?
• How will you report on the stages of the work done?

Pay special attention to already completed projects, it is best to hire a developer who has already written something similar to what you are working on. Also, make sure that the candidates are able to organize themselves and complete the tasks on time.

Step 4. After the interview

It is advisable to write down your own thoughts directly after the conversation: what went well? what is the pluses and minuses of the candidate? what should be repeated in job interviews — and what should be better? In doing so, one should, first of all, reflect on the questions which were effective and those which unnecessarily put the applicant in the dust.

Once you have made your decision, you should notify the candidate as soon as possible — nothing will make you look worse than simply breaking off communication and leaving the candidate in the dark. A commitment is, of course, excellent — but also a friendly rejection and constructive feedback on the conversation are accepted by many thankfully.

Step 5. Test your candidate

You are almost there — finally you have found a great programmer with whom you can not wait to start working. But before you begin, try it out. Charge him with a small project that is difficult enough to test his skills and work style, but simple enough so that it can be completed in a short time and a small budget.

Hire a developer only if the code is really good, performed on time and you are satisfied with the way work and communication went along in the workflow. And although you may be tempted by the idea of ​​starting to work right away, remember that you need to protect the idea of ​​your project. It is very unlikely that the developer will steal it, but still invite him to sign the Non-disclosure Agreement.

Conclusion.

The secret of successful search for a strong and suitable development team is simple! The main thing is to approach the choice seriously, to set goals and clearly understand what kind of person is needed in the team, clearly formulate requirements.

Paying attention to all these simple but important criteria described in the article, you can get a clear and correct idea of ​​working with potential candidates, appreciate each of them and choose the most suitable team that will have experience and knowledge using which you can create a strong project.

But if you are frightened by the hiring process described by us, then you can choose to work with a remote development team. You can read more about it here.

What about your experience? We would appreciate your thoughts in the comments below! And if you liked the article — please share it with your friends and colleagues!