If you are about to hire developers for a startup or a full-fledged product, you will need to conduct extensive research on rates, hard/soft skills, the applicant’s location, etc. At the same time, if you don’t understand all the nuances of the development process, the search for the ideal candidate can drag on for months. Actually, that’s why we decided to explain in this article how to hire software developers, what nuances of technical interviews for non-tech managers exist, and how to build a technical team that will become your project’s backbone.
Understand What Type of Developer You Need
A common mistake when hiring software engineers is not understanding who exactly you need to find. For example, sometimes clients approached us with requests like: “We need a full-stack Senior developer,” and, as we interacted further, it turned out that the project needed three narrow-focused experts: one to work on the frontend, another on the backend, and a third to implement CI/CD pipelines. However, the difficulties don’t end there – so let's look at them in more detail below.
Frontend, backend, full-stack, mobile, DevOps
Each task within the project, assigned to a separate expert, implies that he or she has a certain set of competencies. For example, a frontend developer will be able to create the project’s visual part and ensure its comfortable interaction with the user, but won’t build a scalable architecture on the server side. Similarly, if we consider mobile software development, it often requires both a mobile developer and other experts who will provide backend integrations, ensure its security, and build a CI/CD pipeline. That’s why full-stack outsourcing developers can become indispensable at the MVP stage, but prove their useless at the scaling stage.
Project-based vs long-term role
If you are planning a pilot launch, you should consider a project-based format of cooperation that involves a team to perform a number of specific tasks, with fixed deadlines and results. However, if the project horizon expands to 8-12 months or more, it will be wiser to consider candidates for long-term collaboration, which means you or your technical partner will need to take care of onboarding external developers and ensuring their growth within the project.
In-house vs remote vs outsourced
We have both clients who insist on having an in-house team (with the possibility of delegating a number of tasks to remote specialists) and those who are ready to completely transfer the project to an outsourcing vendor. In fact, the correctness of the decision always depends on the business model and the maturity of internal processes. In particular, if you have a product manager, well-established CI/CD pipelines, and specialists responsible for maintaining documentation, outsourcing or a remote format of interaction with individual specialists will bring you the greatest benefit. Otherwise, it makes sense to consider either internal optimizations with subsequent staffing of the in-house team or complete delegation of the project to your technology partner, with management on their side.
Where to Find Software Developers
In our practice, we have tested various environments for searching specialists, from traditional job boards to niche communities. Based on the experience gained, we have built our own recruiting funnel, which includes the following channels.
Freelance platforms (Upwork, Toptal)
Developer hiring platforms like Upwork and Toptal provide quick access to specialists, but they don’t solve the issue of quality management. It happens that some of the freelancers disappear in the middle of the sprint, some deliver non-working code, and some don’t have the necessary technology, although the CV indicates the opposite. Ultimately, we don’t demonize freelancing, but when comparing freelance vs full-time developers, we still recommend using such platforms only if you already have a tech lead or CTO who can assess the suitability of a candidate for a specific project during an interview.
Tech talent marketplaces
Such marketplaces provide more guarantees: specialists often undergo an independent audit and have honest recommendations. However, everything depends on the accuracy of your request – in particular, if you cannot boast the proper technical background, it will be much easier and safer to contact a technical vendor (for example, us), which, depending on the resources you have, will either complete the team from the internal pool or offer vetted developers from partner companies.
Partner agencies and nearshore firms
If you work in Europe or the US, working with outsourcing partners – for example, from Ukraine – will be a great way to get a strong team without inflating the budget. In particular, at WEZOM, we have 275+ specialists who are located in different countries and can easily adapt to your time zone (while having lower rates than local ones).
Internal recruiter vs external staffing
Finally, a few words about team augmentation vs a dedicated team. If you have a technical leader within the in-house team, an internal recruiter will quickly close project vacancies due to a deep understanding of your internal goals and culture. However, if the tech stack is specific and the deadlines are burning, it makes sense to consider attracting an external partner who will both find the software developers you need and build a hybrid interaction model.
How to Write a Developer Job Description That Attracts Talent
A job description is much more than a list of requirements. It is an invitation to collaborate, which can easily get lost among dozens of others if it isn’t written properly (for example, using ChatGPT). Therefore, here is a short guide on what to focus on.
Clear responsibilities
It's worth starting with a clear description of the area of responsibility. In particular, if you expect that the specialist will have to make architectural decisions, work with business analytics, interact with DevOps, or directly communicate with the product owner, you must indicate all of this. For example, if you hire remote developers, who are essentially excellent tech experts, they may easily fail to complete tasks that actually correspond to the team lead’s roles.
Required skills vs nice-to-haves
You have to distinguish which skills are critical at the start and which can be obtained through joint efforts in the development process. This will allow you not to miss strong specialists who meet the key requirements, but, for instance, haven’t worked with a specific tool. For example, when describing new vacancies, we always highlight the main requirements (for example, knowledge of React and understanding of the REST API) and skills that will be an additional advantage (for example, experience in working with GraphQL and Docker).
Tech stack transparency
Some software engineers don’t want to deal with legacy tools, while others are looking for a project where they can acquire a number of new hard skills. If you don’t specify the stack in full, a worthy specialist will either not respond at all or will come with too high expectations. It is also important not to forget to indicate the current project state: an MVP, redesign, refactoring, etc.
Project/business context
Good specialists want to understand why a specific business needs them. Therefore, your task is not to write something like “You will work on the module X,” but to indicate, for example, “We are scaling the product to new markets” or “We are rebuilding the platform because it cannot withstand the workload”. This will allow you to immediately filter out applicants who are not particularly interested in your project.
Screening & Evaluating Candidates (Even If You're Not Technical)
If you don’t have a CTO, you can still conduct a decent developer skill assessment. For this, you can use AI – both to compile a task for writing a small module/proposal to find and fix a bug/optimize a piece of code, and to check it. In addition, it makes sense to prepare an interview scenario with questions on logic, communication, and real experience. If you doubt your own abilities supported by an AI assistant, you should consider involving a technical partner, for example, WEZOM. We will take on all the tasks of staffing your team and select specialists who fully meet your requirements and niche.
Red Flags When Hiring Developers
The first one from our dev hiring red flags is unrealistic promises. For example, if your new specialist promises a two-week deadline for a complex mobile platform or a backend for an MVP "for very little money," be sure that either the deadline will be missed or the code will have to be rewritten from scratch. The second warning sign is poor communication from the very beginning. A developer who doesn’t respond to your messages for days and ignores edits always carries big risks for the business. Finally, the third red flag is a lack of understanding of basic professional standards, including versioning via Git, following generally accepted methodologies/processes, etc.
Contracting, IP, and Legal Protection
We always advise our clients to draw up an NDA at the start, as well as clearly define the rights to the source code, payment contract terms for developers, and a list of mandatory deliverables. In addition, you shouldn’t forget about post-release support and bug fixing – if they weren’t agreed upon for at least 1-3 months after the project release, you may be left alone with problems. As for our practice, we always use contract templates, adapting them to the jurisdiction of each individual client and the risks of their projects.
Onboarding Developers into Your Workflow
Without proper onboarding, the specialist you hire will lose his or her time, and you will lose your money. That’s why we always recommend preparing project documentation before a new person starts working. Such documentation describes the code structure, dependencies, and business logic. You will also need to take care of choosing the optimal communication channels: usually, this is Slack, Jira, and Confluence. And, finally, you will have to agree on the structure of sprints, including the number of tasks, their priority, and how their review will take place.
How WEZOM Helps Clients Hire Top Engineers
We have transformed from a local team to an international outsourcing partner in matters of software consulting, development, and support. During this time, we have built a systematic approach to hiring, with a funnel that includes a multi-stage selection of candidates (hard/soft skills, proactivity, ability to work in distributed teams, etc.), and flexible cooperation models (for example, we can provide you with one developer for part-time or staff a cross-functional dedicated team). We never disappear after the product launch, remaining with our clients as a technology partner to achieve their long-term business goals. This is especially important for CEOs who are focused on constant scaling.
Conclusion
If you, as a business owner or product manager, have built a hiring funnel with clear criteria at each stage, you will get not just a “specialist in working with this or that tech stack”, but a full-fledged team member you can rely on. At the same time, if you don’t want to bother with time-consuming hiring, you can entrust this task to WEZOM, and we will staff a remote software engineering team with best-match experts in less than two weeks!