If you call an Uber driver to get you from point A to B, they will do it regardless of how fast the drive is. However, as a recruitment manager looking to hire developers for startup, you don’t have that luxury. You need to properly understand the extent and depth of the entire hiring process because it lies at the crossroads of technical acumen, project management, social networking, and intuition.
In particular, you should be able to evaluate the soft and technical skills of software developers such as their creative and innovative ability, their interpersonal skills, and even their problem solving skills.
Admittedly, hiring software developers is both an art and science. However, there are different approaches and methodologies to evaluate the subtle dimensions of a developer’s skills and abilities, making it extremely difficult for a startup.
And that is what this post is all about. We are going to look at the best recruiting techniques that a startup can use to yield a highly effective screening process.
Where to Find Developers for Startup
According to a recent report by StackOverflow, only 15.2% of developers are actively looking for a job although three-fourths wouldn’t mind hearing about new job opportunities. This means that the remaining 85% are “passive candidates”, which calls for the hiring manager to go above and beyond the stereotypical process if they are to reach and engage with the passive developers.
Source: StackOverflow
Worse still, the increasing popularity of telecommuting and the demand for tech professionals be mobile, which means that highly-skilled tech workers are less tied to particular locations. It shouldn’t then come as a surprise that statistics indicate that 53.3% of developers take a remote working model seriously while 63.9% have reported working remotely.
In light of this, there are multiple ways to find developers for startup. And one of the most dominant sources of developers is through personal networking. This is because developers tend to associate with fellow developers across the globe and chances are that they know someone who is actively looking for a job.
Other notable sources of qualified developer talent include:
Online technical postings and Blogs: Through blogs and technical posts, you can easily gain valuable insights about a particular developer’s technical acumen and their approach to problem-solving, all of which are crucial in identifying a cream-of-the-crop candidate.
Open-source code contributors: Another great way to land a highly-qualified candidate is through open-source sites like GitHub and SourceForge. You get to see their coding philosophy in the projects they have contributed in as well as evaluate their code samples before you even decide to sign the dotted lines.
Conferences: Speakers and attendees at tech-related conferences often provide start-ups with valuable resources to source for qualified candidates.
Online marketplaces like Upwork, Freelancer.com, Fivver, and many others are also a potential ground for startups to source for freelance developers. However, working with freelancers vs full-time remote developers are two different things. Hiring freelance developers comes with multiple challenges including time-consuming vetting processes, overlapping cultures, IP theft, missed deadlines, and much more.
5 Steps to Successfully Hiring a Developer for your Startup
Whether you are looking to build a website, and app or back-end software, programmers are critical in optimizing your processes, which is something no new businesses can afford to downplay. For this reason, entrepreneurs need to wisely choose their development teams if they are to be successful.
To help you set out successfully, we’ve compiled a list of five steps to help you streamline the developer recruitment process without hurting your already stretched budget.
Identify the Hiring Need
Before you start getting all gung-ho about hiring a developer, you first need to establish what your requirements are. This need could be anything from filling a vacated position, expanding your organizational tasks, or even managing extra workload. And while at it, ensure that your requirements are succinctly listed to help filter out needs that can be taken care of without hiring a developer.
Write a Detailed Job Description
When writing down the job description be upfront from the word go by specifically listing the skills you are looking for, what you are not looking for, and the terms of employment. By doing so, you help filter out unnecessary applications and get more admissible resumes in your inbox. Moreover, listing the job requirements specifics in detail also allows you to review the resumes in record time.
Immediately after that, you have penned the job description, you can start the recruitment process by checking internally for highly-qualified candidates by notifying the current crop of employees. However, if you are strictly interested in an external candidate, you can place the ad on your company’s website, social media platforms, local newspaper advertisements, or job posting sites like LinkedIn.
Initial Screening
Once you have received the applications, you can conduct the first round of interviews to ensure that no applicant is fooling you with a decorated resume. For the initial screening phase, you can Google relevant questions to ask and ensure that you have a list of the answers you want to hear from the potential candidates and what you don’t want to hear.
Conduct a Test Project
If the candidate you have chosen is a contractor, start by working on a minimum viable product and scale up once you are satisfied with their level of skills. If you want a full-time developer, the minimum viable product should be a part of the pipeline and they should be able to pass it if they are to make it through to the next interview stage.
Along with the test project, you need to put a time limit and ensure that it is adhered to. A general rule of thumb, the project should be ambiguous and irrelevant to your company as the end results will show you whether what the developers call a “done” product matches your “done” standards.
Face-to-face Interview
Depending on the circumstances, the face to face interview can happen in person or over a video chat. At the end of the face-to-face interview, you are able to get a solid impression of the candidate as well as sell your job position after you have established they are fully qualified.
After the interview, you are required to debrief immediately, pick the qualified candidate, and make them an offer. If at the end of it all you haven’t found the right candidate, you can move on to the next programmer.
The Cost of Hiring Developers for a Startup
As a startup, keeping a close eye on your cash flows during the early stages should be on top of your priorities list. As such, even when hiring a programmer, you should always strive to stick to your recruitment budget. After all, it is value for money that is after.
With that said, one of the biggest problems that have continued to perpetually plagues startups is the rising cost of developers. This shortage is largely fuelled by the skills gap in the tech sector and the rising demand for skilled tech professionals.
For this reason, if you are to keep cash injections on the lower side and still manage to get your development project off the ground, you should look for a startup programmer for hire who brings both technical competence to your project as well as agile development methodology. The latter gives you a linear project plan, which is more cost-effective.
The remote developer salary is largely pegged on the level of skills, size of the company, and location.
Below is a brief summary of the salary of a developer around the world.
According to Indeed, developers in the USA have the highest salary in the world earning an average of $107K and closely followed by their Switzerland counterparts at $97K. In Norway, the average salary is around $72K, while in the UK it’s £30K. In Eastern Europe, the salaries are relatively low with Ukraine commanding the most affordable monthly salary of $3000, which loosely translates to $44K annually.
Final Thoughts
As an entrepreneur, no matter how strong your business idea is, the role of establishing an online presence ultimately rests with your development team. Even a single weak developer in the team can jeopardize the entire project, which is why you should pay special attention when hiring developers.
Good developers for startup should strive to pursue excellence, use spike solutions to overcome technical challenges, and always adhere to the Boy Scout Rule– leaving the campground better than they found it.
