What To Look For When Hiring A Developer

A recent experience made me think about this post, but this was also a topic of debate on the Web Development subreddit on Reddit this week.  I was working with the client to improve their SEO, social media, and user experience.  The client told me that they had a redesign of their site in February, so I was really shocked when I first encountered their site.  I was looking through it and I noticed that their web developer had placed a link to their site, which had rates for their work.  I was surprised to find that this guy was charging $75/hr plus $1000 to start working on the site and the end product for my client was so terrible.

If you're hiring a web developer, you need to find somebody you can trust to give you a great product.  This means that they have a great body of work, but they also have people skills. Let's go over what you should be looking for within each area.

When Looking To Hire A Developer For Your Site

Portfolio: Look For Frequent Updates

A frequently updated portfolio gives the audience a good idea of what your current work is like.  However, it is really great for showing clients that you are active within the field.  It shows that the developer is serious about the craft, is working to improve, and has plentiful clients or ideas.

Best Projects

From the point of view of the developer, you want to make sure you are showing your best works.  Basically, don't cloud the portfolio with every single project you have ever worked on.  Show the best work and really try to sell it.

This might be hard to judge from the client's point of view, but make sure you really like what you're seeing.  If the developer happens to show a ton of projects, make sure you really are obsessed with the latest ones.

Side Projects

Look for some side projects.  If a developer is spending the time to work on side projects not related to client work, then that developer really loves what he or she is doing.  A developer should feel the need to work on these type of projects as well; it shows creativity and a drive to complete that idea.

People Skills

If they can't communicate well, drop them.  You might run into several problems during and after development, and if you haven't talk with them about your issues, you're going to have a bad time.

Responsive

Mobile-first web development is key.  If you their portfolio or work doesn't work for mobile, then theres a chance yours won't be coded for mobile either.  An increasing amount of people are using mobile phones to access the web.  You will lose valuable customers if your site fails to have great user experience on mobile.

Google Them

See what comes up.  See if you can find any social media mentions.  Explore Twitter and see if anybody has reviewed them, mentioned them, followed them.  See if they are active within the community, blog, etc.

When Hiring

People/Interview Skills

This is kind of a given, but having an employee with great interview skills shows that they care about the position, would fit in with your company, and if need be, could communicate well with clients.

Skills Test

This might be the most important one.  With development, proving they have the skills in a controlled environment shows they are capable of working in that position.

Attention To Detail

Attention to detail is always great, but really important with development.  This is where you need to look at their code.  Look for clean, semantic code.  Make sure the code is readable. 

Conclusion

In the end, this is an exchange of trust.  They are going to be in charge of creating an online presence for your client or company.  If you can't trust them as a person or find their portfolio to be lacking in something, then you might want to look elsewhere.  There are plenty of great developers out there who are willing to work for you.  If price is your issue, remember: you usually get what you pay for.